


Firefly

by LasairNiosLu



Category: Furry (Fandom)
Genre: Adventure, Anti-Hero, Assassins & Hitmen, Bodyguard, Comfort Food, Emotional Manipulation, Fire, Mercenaries, Multi, Princes & Princesses, Pyromania, Royalty, Soldiers, Students, Theft, Villains, Violence, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-19 09:20:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 43,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29997195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LasairNiosLu/pseuds/LasairNiosLu
Summary: A fictional bibliography following the life of a young firewolf through birth, life's hardships to death. Follow the grand mercenary, Lasair, through his childhood into adulthood. Experience his hardships, his blessings and the sorrow of losing those he grew up with. Enjoy this story of grand adventure, stepping out of what you know and coping with stressors every day people have come to ignore.
Kudos: 2





	1. Embers

EMBERS  
The third sun shone bright against the bright white sands of the north. Though it shown so brightly most needed coverage for their eyes, the day was cool. Colder than the heat of summer due to the first sun’s glow. It was spring you see- the return of the cool gaze of the third sun which was responsible for the sand shining bright white. It was this cool month, this one frigid day that saw the dew form on desert plants. That saw the last three sons of the king to be born. These three sons were given the names Folcher, Philokrates and Lasair. All were sired by the great desert king known by all four kingdoms as Fuer Gott from the line of Lu. The reign of this king has been known from the time of his christening to the time of his demise as the reign of fire.

This king, King Fuer Gott, has had ten children before these pups. This story, though long and filled with strange and terrible happenings, is not about any of them. This story is about the terrible King Fuer Gott’s last born, Lasair, and his two elder brothers, Folcher and Philokrates. This story is not an underdog to ruler story, as Lasair will never inherit the kingdom. He will never be as great a person as his elder brothers as seen by the kingdoms people. 

On this day where snow could still be found in shaded parts of the castle the three youngest were born. Their mother, Queen Blume Feuer was restless after their birth. The last three pups she had had, had been sent away to keep peace with the three other kingdoms. The kingdom of Earth, one ruling over mountains so high not even eagles could reach their peaks and crevices so deep the center of their great planet could be seen, had been gifted Sango. The kingdom of water- their most terrible enemy, one ruling over the oceans and rivers, who controlled all trade from the seas, were gifted Seonag. And the kingdom of air that ruled over the plains, wetlands and erred country were gifted Sonau. The queen did not wish to see this happen again with her three new pups. The toll it had taken her two years ago still affected her to this very day. 

So, it was decided, by the consultants of the king, that the Queen Blume Feuer would keep her pups. The king wanted nothing from the children. He had had enough with the first born’s training, all now fifteen years of age. He was being stubborn, teaching his sons and daughters how to rule a kingdom was not easy and his first born Fahri was beginning to feel ballsey about his position as a high prince. 

And so, the care of the three new pups was given to the queen and her underlings. Though the Queen was as busy as ever due to the constant threats of encroachment on their territory by the Kingdom of Water, she still had time in the mornings and evenings to care for her pups. During the day however after only a week of recovery the pups were handed off to her underlings. 

The first week of life for the pups was warm and loving despite the frigid spring air. The warmth of the Queens chambers, a room filled with soft fabrics hung up along the walls and a bed covered in soft blankets and fluffy pillows, kept the pups from feeling the chill of the rest of the castle. The fire was always lit in her room, so it was filled almost always with the song of crackling flames and her own humming. The first week of life they only knew the warmth of their mother’s chest and the sweetness of her milk. They only knew the softness of her bedding and the gentleness of her touch. She loved her sons in that week, and in that week the pups came to know what the love of a queen felt like. 

The week after her love and care the three were handed off to one of her majesty's many underlings, Nanny Abrina. This lovely young fennec fox woman was the main caretaker of the three young pups from that day forward. 

She took the three into her arms and brought them to her quarters. Her room was small but warm. She already had a kit of her own named Rika which was why the three were handed off to her. She set the three young boys into the cradle made of soft white birch wood hoping for the young pups to bond with her own kit. However, this would never happen. The three young blue-blooded boys would never bond with Rika but would grow very close to one another. 

For the first year of their lives Nanny Abrina fed, bathed and in all other ways cared for them along with her own kit. They nursed from her, listened to her songs and took in whatever warmth she gave. By the time they had learned to walk two of the three pups began to show their talents their breed was known for. They began sending sparks through the room they had known; fires began to burn on linen and clothing left about in the room. Lasair was the only one of his brothers to never once send sparks through the air or set fire to the young kit’s tail. 

Though the Firewolves were fireproof the fennec foxes of the fiery desert were not. Abrina requested council with her master, queen Blume Feuer and find out what she was to do about the constant flicker of fire coming from the two pups. The queen then gifted the three a room of their own on the farthest tower at the top so they would be able to look down on their father’s kingdom. This room was large and cold. The tower itself was massive, sitting at the back of the castle with one great window facing the sea at the very top. There were many floors leading up to the new prince's room each one colder than the last. 

The three boys were given their own room, a room that was cold at first but would become their sanctuary later on in life. The kit Rika would stay close to his mother, Nanny Abrina, as the kids would grow. The three young princes would be kept in the tower until they were old enough to wander on their own. In the meantime, their Nanny Abrina set up their sleeping spaces against the wall across from the window which overlooked the ocean. The year-old pups didn’t have much to their name’s but were gifted sleeping bags and pillows. The nanny managed to bring the three boy’s extra blankets while also setting up a space for herself and her son to sleep. Though the three kids were now constant fire users they still needed care and constant attention. 

The room which sat at the top of the tower felt very cold and lonely. It hadn’t been used for anything in years, not even being a punishment to the older siblings. There were other towers, two to be exact, that were far smaller that were more effective when it came to punishing the other siblings. No, there was nothing but dust and spiderwebs in the room the kids were staying in. The nanny tried her best to keep the kids from burning their bedding while she taught them how to speak and read. 

The toddlers were as toddlers were, causing trouble and throwing fits when they did not get what they wanted. Folcher, the oldest of the three pups, was the fieriest in temper and in magical abilities. When he threw a fit most of the room made of white stone would be lit aflame. Philokrates, the middle child, was less of a fire user but would scream to the top of his lungs until he was consoled by Abrina. Lasair wasn’t much of a fit thrower though. When he was upset the room would know as he would go quiet or find a corner to sulk in. 

It took the toddlers until they were six to learn to control their fires. They didn’t know their mother, Queen Blume Feuer and they weren’t allowed to call the nanny their mother. They called her Nanny, nan and Aby but if the word mother, mom or mommy left their mouth she would justly and quickly correct them. They did not know their brothers, only Rika the young kit of their Nannies who would tag around with her when she came up to care for them. They did not know their father nor any other masculine figure as they were kept up in their room overlooking the sea. 

“I want to go down there.” Lasair sighed longingly staring out into the ocean that rose and fell with the current. Their brother Philokrates crawled up to sit beside him on the windowsill. 

“I wouldn’t mind running on that big blue.” They stared plainly, a bored expression on his face. Lasair turned away from the old glass window and took a gander at the mostly empty room. Along one wall was a nest of blankets and pillows that made up their sleeping space. Mettle cast toys and porcelain models were littered around the room. Bones and hooves which served as toothing toys and toothbrushes were set up along the floors trim. Clothing, though not as pretty as the lords of this land, rested in a short pile in one corner, their bathroom in the other.

“I just want to explore.” Lasair sighed, reluctantly looking over to Folcher who was currently squatting in the restroom. He cringed at the look on his brothers face before popping open the window. 

“Do you think we could make it to the lower ledge there without dying?” Lasair hummed, leaning his chest out the window. He could barely reach the decorative ledge that rested below the window’s ledge. 

“We could try.” Philokrates stated confidently, sliding his own paws out of the window. He reached his paws down and was able to slide down to the ledge. Lasair watched, a slightly concerned look in his eyes. 

“Don’t fall.” He warned, sitting up on the window ledge and swinging his own legs over the side. Philokrates began to scoot slowly across the wall, his back to the warm white stone of the tower. Lasair landed on the ledge besides him and began to follow him along the ledge. 

“Wow, this building is a whole lot bigger than I thought.” Philokrates hummed in awe as he took a long look at the main castle building that sat in the shadow of their tower. Lasair was busy scooting slowly to his side, his knees shaking quite a bit as he followed. 

“Uh-uh, I don’t - think - I like this-“ He whimpered beginning to regret his decision to explore. His stomach began to feel tight and the back of his head was buzzing as he looked down. 

“That-that’s a long way down.” He murmured; his voice hushed yet strained as his heart began to pound in his ears. 

“Hey there’s an outcropping of stone here.” Philokrates said once he found a decorative outcropping of stone along the corner of the tower. It led from the top of the tower down to the main building of the castle. Lasair stopped at the outcropping and stared down into the shadows below. 

“Are- are we going down then?” He asked, sliding slowly down to a sitting position. Philokrates smiled and nodded as he began to climb down the outcropping. A flutter of birds flew out from the crevices between the outcropping and main tower wall as he climbed down. He had made it down to the third floor before Lasair had gotten his nerves in order so he could begin climbing down as well. He hooked his arm around the outcropping as he got his feat in order. 

“There’s a window ledge down here!” Philokrates shouted up at his younger brother. Lasair peered down at his older brother - ears forwards and tail stiff, 

“We should stop there for a minute.” Lasair called down and Philokrates agreed. He sat there on the ledge waiting for Lasair. Lasair eventually made it down to the ledge besides him. 

“We’re still so far up.” Lasair murmured worriedly, never once looking up from the ground. Philokrates didn’t seem as worried. 

“Once we make it down onto the roof there, we could take one of those banners up to our room.” He offered, wanting to continue to explore. Lasair nodded, admiring the gently flowing fabrics of the red and black tapestry depicting a vicious looking wolf breathing fire onto a knight holding up his shield. They were both admiring the brilliance of the tapestry when the window behind them swung open and a pair of arms snatched the two up. They both let out a startled Yelp, worried they would be sent off the edge and plummet to their deaths. Luckily for the pair of them the caretaker of the room they had been sitting outside of had spotted them and pulled them into the room. 

“What on God’s good grace do you two think you are doing?!” Shouted a frantic sounding man. An elderly looking rattler held the two tightly in the crook of his arms. The pair squirmed -startled and afraid as they had never known anyone but their nanny Abrina, the beautiful white and silver fennec Fox. This dark brown and bronze snake dressed in soft blues and creams held them still as he closed the window with his tail. He wasn’t much, just a humble serpent under his king, someone who cleaned and kept the rooms in order for the lords who visited the kingdom often. 

“Let us go! No please! Don’t eat us!” Philokrates screeched squirming in the older man’s grip. He was clawing at their arm and trying to bite at his hands. Lasair was doing about the same though he was trying to slip out of his grip instead of fight his way out.  
“Calm down you two, I’m not going to kill you. Where did you lot even come from?” He asked as he walked out of the room. A few curious ears were turned towards the group as he walked with them towards the stairs. Lasair stopped struggling as they walked, finding the hallways a curious place. There were paintings and tapestries all along the walls and the carpeting along the hallway was a mixture of red orange and yellow. 

“You look like the king’s son’s… maybe you’re one of the lord’s kindred.” The rattler hummed in thought as he walked down the stairs. 

“What’s a lord? What’s a King? What’s kindred?” Lasair asked, wincing when the snake adjusted his grip on the kid. 

“Don’t play dumb with me, kid. You know your king, King Fuer Gott and you likely know a few of the lords of this land, seeing as you are their breed.” He hummed as he began walking down the stairs. The torches that lit the stairway were strange to Lasair. They were just burning sticks instead of the flame lit lamps in his room. 

“What’re your names then, kids?” The snake asked, eventually setting Philokrates down onto the stair’s landing besides him as he had continued to squirm. 

“Why should we tell you?! We don’t know who you are!” The elder brother screamed, making quite a fuss as he tried to pull away from the rattler. Lasair remained in the stranger’s arm, just watching his elder brother pull against his wrist which the other had grabbed hold of.  
“Nanny calls me Lasair.” He said quietly, getting a look of betrayal from his brother. 

“Wh-Las! Why would you tell him that?!” He squeaked as they were led down the stairs. 

“And that’s uh...Cemi…Yeah- Cemi.” Lasair murmured trying to save-face with his brother. Philokrates rolled his eyes face palming as they entered the main building. 

“Well, Cemi And Lasair- I am Mior- a bit of a room keeper and a bit of a cleaner.” The snake introduced himself, setting Lasair down onto the smooth marble floor. It took the boy a moment to adjust himself, testing the smooth surface out with his foot claws. 

“Now, let’s get you two back to your parents, shall we?” Mior suggested as he pulled Philokrates along besides him. Lasair followed along, holding onto a scrap of the man’s clothing so he wouldn’t get lost as he admired the portraits of the lords, princes and princesses that dwelled within these walls. 

“Are those people the people who live here?” Lasair asked in a soft yet curious voice. Mior nodded pointing to a particularly grand portrait of the first-born prince.

“This is the only one you’ll need to know on this floor at the moment. This is the high prince Fahri, soon to be the king of these lands if all goes well.” Mior hummed. Lasair glanced around the giant painting then back into the halls behind him.  
“It feels so empty here, where is everyone?” Philokrates grumbled, still trying to twist his wrist out of the rattler’s hand. 

“Well of course it seems like that. Many of the lords are out living at their individual cities. The other princes are often away in the town and the council members are all a floor under us.” Mior explained as he led the two to the main floor. The staircase led down into a grand great hall; the pail white stone highlighted by golden trim. 

“One of the lords here must have brought you, why not make it easier on me and tell me who is responsible for your care?” 

“Nanny Abrina.” Lasair hummed as he took in all of the different pieces of art being displayed. There were plenty of guards dressed in light armor and decorated with swords and shields. They were almost everywhere on this floor. 

Mior paused, looking down at the two kids before seaming to get a worried expression on his face.  
“Nanny Abrina…” he repeated, turning around and quickly herding the two back up the stairs. Lasair whined a bit while Philokrates was all for going back up to his room. 

“No wait, I want to stay here- please, don’t take us back upstairs!” Lasair whined, pulling back against Mior’s grip. The elderly gentleman shifting scooped him back up and began carrying the two back up to the floor they had come from.  
“I’m sorry lads, you two can’t be wandering about the castle like this- “ He sighed nocking at the door to their floor with his tail. It quickly swung open as a panicked Nanny Abrina stepped into the hallway. 

“M-Mior? Kids!?” She quickly scooped up a struggling Lasair while shooing Philokrates back into the room behind her. 

“Don’t be too harsh with them two, they were just having a bit of a wonder.” The rattler hummed, watching as Lasair quieted. 

The two pups that had escaped the confides of their room, Lasair and his brother Philokrates with his new nickname Cemi, were scolded quite harshly for doing so. All of their toys were taken from them and they were not allowed their small dinner meal. The two of them were grumped about by Folcher who had been abandoned in the room while he was using the restroom. He was not only upset over them leaving but also getting caught by someone and losing them their dinners and their toys. Lasair simply curled himself up into a ball under his blankets while Philokrates tried to remove the new locks from the window their Nanny had put up. Folcher just paced the room whining about his boredom and hunger. 

The news of the children’s curiosity and ability to wander and find ways to escape their rooms soon met the ears of their mother’s, queen Blume Feuer. She was amused at the idea of her sons climbing out of the window and sliding down the side of the castle wall. She agreed that on their next birthday the three would be reunited with the rest of the family and allowed to explore the main building of the castle, but only the castle. This news was then brought to the boys who were understandably confused about who these people were. Nanny Abrina was of course left with the task of teaching the boys who their family was. 

She started by introducing the first-borns who were fifteen years older than the three and who were preparing themselves to take over their fathers kingdom if their father became deathly ill or was assassinated. The first born, high prince Fahri was the one who would succeed their father and become the new ruler of the land. His two siblings Ahriye his brother and Taura his sister would be the first members in his council. The children born after them, a group of four about seven years older than Lasair’s litter had been raised as knights and protectors that would eventually lead the armed guard of the castle in protecting their older siblings. In order of oldest to youngest; Fihr, Furaha, Cenek and Chiameka were to be the next armored guard captains. The third batch of pups was only conceived to be a mark of alliance between the fire kingdom and the three others. They were only two years older than Lasair’s litter. Sango, Seonag and Sonau. Their nanny explained that it wouldn’t be likely for the three of them to ever meet these three as they would likely be kept in their new kingdoms. She then went on to explain who their parents were. She began with the mighty and terrible King Fuer Gott, the ruler of the fire kingdom and all of the desert lands within it. She explained that he would grace them with his presence only once per year unless they got into serious trouble with the kingdom’s law. She explained that he was already busy enough with his first two litters along with his kingdom so he wouldn’t be spending much time with the three. She then went on to introduce the lovely queen Blume Feuer to the three boys. She explained that their mother whom was also very busy with the kingdom would likely make more time for her three young boys if they were to only ask. She explained to the three that though their parents and family members would be busy most of the time there would be many things to do around the castle. 

After introducing the boys to their family through pictures and portraits and being sure they could recite each one’s name back to her she began to show the children where they would be allowed in the castle by copying down a few rough blue-prints and maps of the castle’s hallways. She explained that the main floor of the castle was mainly for the lords and council members as it was filled with meeting rooms the dining hall and kitchens. There were however two spots for the three boys to explore, the library which was stalked floor to ceiling with books on almost every topic, and the central garden, which was a roofless area at the center of the castle building that housed a brilliant garden and a small pond. She explained that the second level was mainly empty most of the year as it was housing for high-end guests and visiting lords of other kingdoms. She stated that if a room seemed to be occupied- as the doorknob would be unlocked- they weren’t to ever go in though the hallways and locked rooms- if they were to ask of course- were free for them to roam. 

All of this talk about being able to explore the castle was exciting the three young pups. They found themselves dreaming up adventures of talking to their princely brothers and being taken on long adventures into the deserts by the lords who served under their father. They were all too ready for the seventh birthday, all too ready to leave their room.


	2. Flames

FLAMES  
The day of their seventh birthday their Nanny, Abrina, dressed them up in their best clothes. Each boy was adorned with a Shendyt, a cloth of bright purple wrapped like a skirt around their waists and tied off with a belt made of silver and black cord. Due to the cold they were also dressed up in soft purple tunics with small golden pins in the shape of a sun to keep them from falling off of their shoulders. Wound golden bracelets depicting the house of Lu’s gemstone, the ruby, were place on their wrists and collars of purple and red beads were set upon their shoulders and around their necks. 

“Will we get crowns? Tiaras?” Philokrates asked as they were being dressed. The nanny Abrina nodded, a soft smile on her warm face. It had taken allot out of her, taking care of these three young princes along with her own son. 

“Yes, you will each get a thin crown but it will be given to you by your mother and father.” 

“Why would you want a crown?” Folcher asked with a snicker, messing around with the jewelry he had been given. He didn’t want to be wearing the gems or the collar or any of these clothes. He wanted to stay in the room with the books Abrina had brought up for the three. Lasair on the other hand was admiring himself in the mirror that had been placed opposite their restroom. 

“Because it would look nice.” Lasair answered for Philokrates who was looking at Folcher sheepishly. Folcher rolled his eyes as the three were led down the stairs of the great tower facing the ocean. Lasair paused at every window taking note of how far they had walked. 

“Come along you three, we can’t be late for your own birthday party.” She called back to the two. It was the twenty-fifth of that month and the suns were barely a blip in the sky thanks to how cloudy it was. The children didn’t seem to care. 

They made their way down to the main floor and into the grand hall. This giant dining hall had been decorated with ribbons and beaded decorations that lined the entrances and exits. Along the walls there were braided fabrics and drapes of satin in deep red. The lighting was primarily made of chandeliers made of white crystal and golden chain. The tables were a brilliant cream-colored wood with table covers of the same deep red color the drapes had. The chairs were a matching set though many of them were filled with people Lasair and his brothers could not recognize. At the head of the room sitting in a throne with a table of his own sat King Fuer Gott and his Queen Blume Feuer. Above their heads was a brilliant tapestry with the Lu’s family crest a wolf on fire at its center.

All of this new information was making Lasair very anxious. There were so many people around him of which he knew nothing about and there were so many new items to look at. He was beginning to shake like a leaf. He felt his ears fold backwards flattening against his head as the sound of the people chattering finally got to him all at once. He pressed his hands against them to push them down further not wanting to be bombarded with such noise. 

“Are you alright?” Folcher whispered, resting a hand on his younger brother’s shoulder. Lasair jerked away, startled by the contact. 

“Leave me alone.” He growled, slumping over a bit. Philokrates glanced about the room and pulled Lasair back up to his side. 

“Come on Las, we’ll be okay.” He said in a calming tone as he walked with him past the great tables to the front of the room. 

Their nanny Abrina led the three to the front of the room. She lined them up side by side from eldest on the left to youngest on the right. They were all stood stalk still in front of their father’s cold stare. Fuer Gott’s eyes, a silvery blue that rivaled the stormy sky outside, stared sternly down at the three siblings. He was very clearly judging everything about them, from the color of their fur to the way they stood. 

“Mongrels, the lot of them.” He muttered in a deep raspy tone. It sounded as if he was being drowned out by fire when he spoke. Queen Blume Feuer gasped at his statement, sitting straighter in her throne. 

“They are not!” She hissed back, her voice suddenly lacking her usual tone of kindness. 

“Why, then- does the last one shake so terribly in my gaze?” Asked the king, his terrible gaze dropping on Lasair who was still having trouble standing still. His stomach felt sick as he felt the eyes of the crowd behind him examining his every breath. 

“Calm down.” Whispered Philokrates, nudging him gently on the shoulder. Lasair swallowed hard and tried desperately to meet his father’s gaze. 

“My line is not so pathetic, as to shake so terribly under a simple gaze. And what of the other two? Why are their markings so dull?” The king continued, turning his terrible gaze upon the others. Queen Blume huffed, crossing her arms over her chest as she too examined her sons. 

“Their markings are not dull.” She insisted, her ears tilting back to emphasize her displeasure. 

“They are the same warm colors as all our other litters.” 

“Then let us see their fires.” Fuer Gott demanded, sitting tall in his throne as he impatiently waited for their display. 

The nanny Abrina stepped back, hoping that the three pups would remember how they were supposed to introduce themselves. Folcher stepped forwards, staring up at his father and his mother. 

“I am Folcher Fier of the house of Lu. Eldest of the litter. I present to you my fire.” His voice rang loud and strong, hushing the whispers of the crowd behind him. With a deep breath the young wolf opened his maw and breathed a long string of bright orange fire. He coughed up a bit of smoke when he was finished, examining his father’s face to see if he would approve of his display. King Fuer Gott had nodded to the pup though said nothing about his fire, seemingly unimpressed by the display. 

“I am Philokrates Foyer, from the house of Lu.” Philokrates stated quickly, eager to get this display over with. Folcher stepped back as he stepped forwards. 

“Middle child of this litter. I present to you my fire.” He stated and held both hands out in front of himself. Both palms lit on fire and the fire rose up into the air several feat. Once the fire disappeared, he shook his hands out as smoke rose from his palms. The king watched the fire rise then turned his unimpressed gaze back to the three pups. Lasair didn’t budge, instead trying to take a step backwards as his brother did so. 

“Las, go up there-“ Philokrates urged, pushing him forwards. Lasair stared up at his father for a long moment before taking a deep breath in 

“I am Lasair Níos Lu, and I have no fire to present to you.” His demeanor seamed to change completely, from timid and fearful to cold and just as unamused as his father’s. 

A long hush fell over the room as King Fuer Gott stared down at his son. He stood and walked to the edge of the podium and tilted his head as he stared down the youngest of his offspring. 

“Say That again?” He demanded, obviously not believing what Lasair had just said. 

“I am Lasair Níos Lu.” Lasair stated again, not at all shaken by the approach of his father. 

“No, no- not your name. What did you say after that?” Fuer Gott growled.

“I have no fire to show you.” Lasair said again, balling his hands into fists as he fought the urge to run way. The king knelt down a bit, a smirk on his face. 

“You are lying.” He hissed, believing that his line could never not develop the ability to use fire magic. Lasair stared up at his father standing as stiff as a soldier. 

“I am Lasair Níos Lu, son of King Fuer Gott and Queen Blume Feuer, house of Lu. . . And I do not have the ability to use fire magic.” He said again, this time in a much louder tone of voice. 

The crowd behind him slowly began to laugh, the noise of their laughter growing as the king stood tall staring out into the crowd. With one quick snarl the crowd went dead silent yet again. 

“You’re lying! Show me your fire or be sent back to your tower in which you have come!” He demanded, a few sparks of dark red fire escaping his maw as he spoke. Lasair gulped stepping back yet again knowing he was unable to do as he was demanded to. 

“I cannot.” He murmured and with that the king snarled and turned his back to his children. 

“Take the youngest back to his room. He will not eat with us.” He ordered two of the guards standing along the walls of the great hall. 

Lasair didn’t fight it. He allowed himself to be walked out of the room, though sunk his head down between his shoulders as the whispers of the crowd began to get to him. The bottom of his throat felt like it was burning and he felt tears begin to brim at the edges of his eyes. When he got back to his room, he stared at the door watching as the guards left him alone in the darkly lit room. The moment the doors closed he glanced away, tears dripping down his cheeks. 

“Well…” he whispered to himself as he pulled a blanket up from the floor. 

“That could have gone better.” He sniffed pulling the blanket around his shoulder. He made a hood from the blanket and made his way to the window. He couldn’t see the party though he could see the reflection of the lights of the lower levels of the castle on the surface of the sea. He could barely hear the music from the great hall. 

It took the boy a moment of crying before he had managed to pull himself together. He wasn’t too upset about his ‘father’ or about the opinions of his people. He was mainly upset that he had to leave his brothers without getting to participate in what his nanny had described as a brilliant meal. He was lonely, hungry- and a bit embarrassed over the whole experience. After a long while of sitting at the window watching the lights reflect off of the waves Lasair went to rest in his blankets. He was sure his brothers would share their experiences with him in the form of stories once they were finished. But for the moment he was just ready to forget everything that had happened. 

His sleep was light as the soft music coming up from under his room kept him mostly awake. He tossed and turned eventually just pulling his brothers blankets over himself to try and drown out the noise. Hours passed before the sound of his door opening woke him. He peaked out of his blanket fortress and watched as Folcher and Philokrates were escorted into the room. Each one was wearing a crown atop their heads. The moment the door closed again Philokrates tore the blankets away from Lasair. 

“Wake up Lasair Lu! Look at these!” He squeaked, pointing to his crown. It was a thinly pressed golden circle with a large blue gem with golden flecks through it cut into the shape of a diamond at its front. Lasair sat up a bit as he examined the pretty blue gem. 

“Cemi’s isn’t nearly as nice as mine.” Folcher boasted, pulling his crown off and showing it to Lasair. The band of Folcher’s crown was thin but the front had a crest of gold with a soft yellow and white gem pressed into it. 

“They are both nice.” Lasair admitted, comparing the two crowns side by side. 

“Was… Was there a third crown?” He asked looking up to his two brother’s with a saddened expression. They glanced at one another for a moment before shrugging. 

“They hadn’t presented it if there was one.” Philokrates said and took a seat besides Lasair in the soft blankets and pillows of theirs. Las let out a soft huff, he should have expected that there wouldn’t be a third crow. 

“I’m guessing that means I’m going to go with nanny then? Like the three brothers who were sent away to the other kingdoms?” He looked to Folcher hoping for an answer. Folcher just sat down and pulled over his tunic he had been using as a makeshift bag. 

“I don’t think they’ll send you away. The queen looked as if she were going to strangle the king after you were sent away.” He hummed, opening the bag and spreading out his collected goodies at its center. 

“But enough of the worrying- here.” He picked up a slightly smooshed pastry and handed it to Lasair. He took it and examined it, a soft smile on his face. 

“Thanks.” He sighed and pulled the top of the muffin off. It wasn’t any ordinary breakfast muffin. The top was crusted in sugar yet it hadn’t hardened the bread beneath. He poked at an off colored blueish black spot in the pastry and hummed curiously before taking a bite.

“Blueberry muffin.” Philokrates hummed, snatching another one from Folcher’s pile. Lasair’s tail flicked contently behind him. 

“These are good.” He hummed happily munching on the muffin as he looked over Folcher’s collection of goodies. 

In amongst Folcher’s makeshift bag there was one more muffin sitting amongst several other pastries. There were cookies and sweet croissants along with a small loaf of what smelt like banana bread. Folcher had also brought up with him a chunk of butter that had been wrapped in a fabric napkin. In a separate napkin was something that made Las’s mouth water significantly. 

“What’s that?” He asked, taking a long sniff inward. Philokrates giggled and raised his tail,

“That was me.” 

“Disgusting Cemi, no- that’s not what I meant-“ Lasair grumbled as he held his nose. Folcher hummed and pulled open the piece of fabric. Inside were three pieces of roasted sheep’s ribs. Chopped onions and garlic were still settled nicely on the tender looking meat. The outside of the ribs were coated in a sauce that tasted like honey and cinnamon with a hint of fermentation behind it. Lasair pulled a bit of the meat away from the bone and examined the soft pale grey around the cream-colored flesh. 

“Go on, try it.” Folcher pressed, lying flat on his back once he had gotten his blankets in order. Lasair popped the chunk of meat into his mouth and smiled. It was delicious. He pressed his back against the wall and relaxed into his stolen meal. 

“This is delicious, thanks for bringing me up something to eat.” He hummed between bites. Folcher nodded letting out a long yawn while Philokrates pulled up his own blankets. 

“Oh-tomorrow the queen wants to see us three. Uh- I don’t remember what time.” Philokrates murmured as he curled himself into his blankets and began arranging his pillows around and under him. Lasair finished off a bit of his banana bread with some butter spread over it and sighed. 

“Do you think she’ll want to be seeing me? The king didn’t at all seem pleased with me.” He murmured as he tried to clear his throat. Folcher rolled over and rummaged around the bag for a moment and pulled out a small jelly jar that had been emptied and instead held a clear liquid in it. 

“Here, it’s nothing special- just water. We couldn’t get the adults to let us try any of the drinks they were sharing around the table.” He sighed as he handed Lasair the jar. Las thanked his older brother and sipped from the jar as Philokrates scratched at his chin in thought.

“I’m sure the queen wants all three of us - I mean, she asked for all three so of course she wants all three.” He yawned, resting his head down onto his pillows. 

The moment Lasair was finished with his meal the pup stood and moved the makeshift bag to the window. He curled up between his two brothers burying himself into his own blankets and pillows. He was content now after a decent meal and the comforting conversation with his brothers. They had discussed what had happened earlier that evening and had decided that they wouldn’t be going to their father for anything. They would be playing favorites and would definitely go to their mother from here on out. 

The three had talked about the party, the two older brothers describing what occurred after Lasair had been escorted out. They described that the room had returned to laughter and mocking though they saved Lasair from hearing any of the insults that had been thrown out there. The two had been sat at the front of the room, the seat that had been saved for Lasair removed from the podium. They described that once the laughter died down, thanks to the band’s music the talk shifted from the pups to what sounded like the relations between the kingdoms. Both Folcher and Philokrates were not at all interested in the talk so they focused on instead the meals that had been presented to them.

They had been started with a savory soup with scallops, muscles and chunks of white fish. Philokrates had picked out and pushed away every scallop he had come across, finding the texture quite unpleasant. Folcher wished Lasair could have tasted it though he wasn’t able to get the broth he didn’t believe it would be worth saving some bits of fish for his younger brother. The second dish they had been presented with was an array of meats and vegetables. They had gotten to try duck, glazed chickens, pheasants and baked turkey. They had gotten to try sliced pork belly, leg of lamb and the sheep’s ribs. By the time they had gotten to the sheep’s ribs Folcher had removed his toga. It was very warm in the room and he hadn’t really needed the covering- that was when he realized he should probably bring Lasair some of these bits and bobbles. The deserts that had been presented seemed to be focused around the adults in the room so the two weren’t allowed to try many but they had been presented with a few pastries. Philokrates had enjoyed the jams and the different sower dough and sweet dough breads. Once he had finished off a jar of jam Folcher had filled it with water and capped it gathering food stuffs and deserts for Lasair. 

The conversation in the crowd hadn’t really changed though it was becoming more heated. They were talking about the trades between the Water and Fire kingdoms. They wanted part of that seafaring trade knowing they would make plenty off of selling papyrus, gunpowder and gemstones. Folcher explained that they had asked to be taken back up to their room once the conversations had turned to shouting matches. Their father waved them off and a guard escorted them out of the room back to their tower. Lasair admitted he would have enjoyed being down there with them, if not for the food then for the show of the crowd embarrassing themselves with their escalation of the conversations. 

The night passed quickly the music from the party dying down once the first lights of the first sun began to glow over the horizon. Folcher was the first one to wake, moving from the bundle of blankets and pillows to the window. He was watching the soft waves on the sea when the other two brothers began to wake. Once all of the boys were awake, they began to undress brushing out their fur and tossing the clothes into the pile of dirty clothes in the corner of the room. Lasair watched his brothers look over their new crowns, sighing jealously when they admired themselves in the mirror with the gemstones glinting in the low light of the room. 

The three dressed in their wrapped skirts before pulling open their bedroom door. It wasn’t locked this time- they were finally old enough to leave on their own. They were shaking with excitement tearing down the stairs at high speed bright smiles spread across their faces. They laughed loudly as they go to the main building, running through the empty halls and starting a game of tag. The only people they came across were maids and room keepers. The lords and other visiting individuals were sleeping, having made their way to their rooms much earlier in the morning. 

“When did the queen want to see us?” Lasair asked, panting slightly as they stopped at the ledge along one side of the halls that looked down into the open topped garden. He was admiring the different flowers in the central garden while his brothers took up their spots besides him. They all took a moment to lean up against the rails, peering down into the garden curiously. The morning light was shining down into the garden reflecting up into the hallway by the pond at the very center of the garden. 

“I don’t remember.” Philokrates hummed, taking his crown off and rubbing his temple. 

“Maybe we should check in with her after lunch?” Folcher suggested, leaning over the edge and wincing when his stomach gurgled. He had definitely eaten too much last night. 

“Are you hungry?” Lasair asked with a smirk. Folcher growled softly, his ears were tilted back and he looked very uncomfortable. 

“No, I’m definitely not hungry.” Folcher grumbled looking pretty nauseous. Lasair was trying to keep himself from constantly glancing directly down into the garden. He knew he was safe where he stood but the height they were at was still unpleasant. 

“Well, I am.” Philokrates hummed, placing his crown back on and stepping away from the edge. Both brothers looked at Philokrates, a slightly concerned expression on their faces. 

“Cemi, how in the heck are you hungry after last night?!” Folcher asked. Lasair walked over to Philokrates who was messing with the cord belt keeping his skirt wrapped around him. 

“I’m just hungry. Can we go see what’s in the kitchen?” The kid asked, gaining an annoyed huff from Folcher. Lasair was all for this exploration, tail raised and body alert. 

“Yeah! Let’s go see what we can get for breakfast.” He laughed, running towards the next set of stairs. Folcher groaned, letting out a burp as he walked behind the two. 

“Hmmm, maybe I should just stay up here. I don’t wanna run around anymore.” He huffed, holding his arms tightly around his waist. The other two looked at Folcher, heads tilted as they were both curious and concerned. 

The three boys made their way down the stairs as slowly as Folcher needed them to go. Once they got to the main floor, they huddled closer together surprised to see a large amount of people wandering the hallways. All of whom were dressed to their teeth in expensive fabrics and jewelry. 

“I thought all of the lords and their ladies were sleeping?” Lasair asked, sticking by Folcher’s side as they walked cautiously through the hallways towards the kitchens. 

“I did too- I guess these are the people who didn’t join in on the party last night?” Philokrates added. They all got strange looks from the people who had been wandering the halls admiring paintings, tapestries and other pieces of fine art set out in the hallways. They continued walking into the kitchen, Lasair trying to ignore the whispers of the crowd. It seemed they were intrigued that only two of the boys were wearing their crowns. They were telling each other rumors and stories about what had happened the previous night which really upset Lasair. 

“Just ignore them, Las.” Folcher huffed, wrapping an arm over his shoulder. Lasair leaned into his older brothers hold, glaring at the people around them before they slipped into the kitchen. The kitchen was large, taking up nearly a quarter of the main floor. There were ovens, stone and metal- smokers, freezers, fridges, giant pots, and massive sinks. At the center of the giant room there were gas stoves, counter tops cluttered with bread making materials and open counters waiting for their master’s use. 

“How are we supposed to find anything to eat in here!” Philokrates grumbled, walking around the kitchen then yelping when a few of the chefs and other cooks stepped into the room from a door to his left. The people who entered the room also looked pretty spooked, surprised that there were three pups just wandering their space. 

“You three, shoo! Shoo! Get out of here!” One yelled, waving the three out of the room. The three brothers gathered back together a bit shocked but respectfully walked back to the entrance of the kitchen. 

“We just wanted something to eat.” Lasair sighed, looking up at the cook who was walking with them to make sure they actually left the room. The cook glanced over the three, letting out a sigh before standing tall and crossing their arms over their chest. 

“Alright alright, I’ll make you something quick to eat but after this you can’t come in here again unsupervised.” The old looking crocodile huffed. The cook walked the three back to the stove and pulled out some stools for them to sit on so they could watch him cook without them getting in the way. 

“Alright you three- it’s time that you start learning how to fend for yourselves. You may eventually become dukes if your father approves of it, ruling over the lords of these lands but for the moment you’re nothing more than trouble in the eyes of everyone here.” The crocodile huffed as he prepared to make the three some porridge to start their day. The three kids nodded to one another already aware that they weren’t exactly wanted. He pulled out a large metal pot and poured in a few cups of water along with some rice.

“Long grain rice, it’ll keep you full at the very least.” He hummed, bringing the water to a bare simmer before partially covering the pot with a lid. He stepped away from the pot for a bit gathering supplies to make some sides for the three. 

“What are you making for us?” Philokrates asked, seemingly very interested in the cooking process. He was on his knees on the stool watching the crocodile cook. 

“Something simple, now sit down.” He grumbled, pulling out a cast-iron pan and setting it over another fire. He paused to stir the rice again adding a bit of salt and pepper before returning to the pan and laying across it three strips of bacon. Lasair lifted his nose to the air happily taking in the scent of frying bacon. 

“Now you boys can’t eat this in here but when you’re finished just leave the bowls on the end counter over there.” The man pointed out a counter close to the entrance of the kitchen. He pulled the bacon off the pan laying it on some cloth napkins before pulling out three large brown chicken eggs. He poured out a small portion of the bacon grease into a grease bin but kept just enough on the pan to cook the eggs with. 

“Where can we eat these then?” Folcher asked, watching as the crocodile stirred the rice porridge again, turning the heat off under the pot. 

“In the garden, in your room, in the dining hall if no one else is in there. It doesn’t matter to me- you just can’t eat it here.” He replied as he watched the eggs cook sunny side up. Once they were just about ready to come off the pan, he served up three small bowls of porridge to the kids, setting the drained bacon on to then adding the eggs on the very top of the mound of porridge. 

Once the three had received their breakfasts they were shoved out of the room. They were all staring at the porridge for a long moment just admiring the simple breakfast before Lasair began to walk in the direction of the central garden. 

“Las- where are you going?!” Philokrates barked, walking quickly after his brother. 

“To the garden, Cemi- I thought that was obvious?” He hummed then went into the garden staring in awe at the giant space around him. 

“Wow,” Folcher hummed, idly mixing his bowl of porridge as they began exploring the garden. There were benches and tables randomly dotted around the garden. Everything was surrounded by flowering plants and gorgeous bushes and small trees. Lasair found a spot to sit near the pond at the center of the garden and began to tuck into his breakfast. 

The three pups relaxed into their spots by the pond. They finished off their breakfasts setting aside the bowls as they watched the fish that swam lazily around the pond. Lasair laid down on the sandy shore of the pond watching the water bugs skip across the clear surface. A few silver minnows swam past him clearly chasing the water bugs. He stuck his arm in wincing at the chill of the water. His fur stuck up on his arm, flowing from side to side with the water's current. He reached down into the water running a paw pad over the surface of some underwater plants. They were smooth and slimy but firmly rooted into the dirt and sand that lined the bottom of the pond. The water fascinated him. It was cold despite the damming heat of the suns that were- by now- all shining their rays down onto the sands of his father’s kingdom. He glanced over to Philokrates who was playing around with some reeds that were along the unused parts of the pond. He pulled up some of the long green leaves and began to try and braid them together. Folcher on the other hand was flicking bits of rice into the water and watching the fish catch them in their mouths. He hadn’t eaten a lot of his breakfast instead he had given his egg and bacon piece to Philokrates. 

“Do you think they’ll let us swim in this?” Lasair asked, pressing his other arm into the cool water. He was keeping his arms still hoping the fish would come back up to him so he could watch the strange creatures up close. 

“Probably? Why else would they have a pond here?” Philokrates hummed, pulling the braided reeds taught between his hands. Lasair smiled as some minnows swam closer to his hands taking small nibbles of his fingers and arms. It tickled and their little bodies amused him greatly. He wondered how they stayed upright when they looked like flat coins or silver dollars. 

“I don’t even think you can swim.” Folcher grumbled, still not feeling his best. He had taken to leaning up against a pile of stones that covered a stream that seemed to act as a filter for the pond. 

“Don’t be so mean, Folcher.” Lasair huffed sitting up and working on removing his cord belt that kept his skirt on. The other two brothers watched him, a concerned look on their faces. 

Lasair waded into the water, naked as the day he was born. Once the water reached his abdomen he leapt into it and began to doggy paddle towards the other side of the pond. The water became cooler the further he went towards the center of the pond. He dove down under the surface opening his eyes cautiously. The pond seemed very deep at the center, it looked like a black pit to Lasair though it was only due to the dark coloration of the sand. His brothers splashed into the water- fearing for their younger brother’s safety as he wasn’t coming back up. Lasair was forcefully pulled up from the water by his brothers, both gasping and coughing as they dragged him out of the water. Lasair coughed a bit mainly because he had been startled by their grabs and had taken a breath too early. 

The three laid panting on the sandy shore of the pond in the central garden. Folcher and Philokrates were still clothed though Lasair remained naked. He sat up and shook off as much of the water as he could before laying down again under the high suns of the spring. The central sun’s light blue light radiated into the garden warming everything it touched. He was full, warm and content though his short rest was interrupted by his two older brothers. They stood over him, still dripping wet due to the unneeded rescue. 

“What were you thinking?!” Folcher growled, glaring down at Lasair as Philokrates tried to ring out his skirt. Lasair hummed keeping his eyes closed. 

“That the center of the pond looks like the night sky.” He responded, a soft smile on his face. Folcher took off his skirt and ringed it out over Lasair. He sat up letting out a yelp as the cool water met his warm fur yet again. 

“Oh come on! I was finally dry!” He huffed, wiping his paw over the now wet patch of fur. 

The three gathered their things, Lasair dressing himself again as they noticed some unpleasant stares from the people around them. 

“Are we their entertainment?” Lasair asked, brushing his claws through his neck fluff to try and dry off a bit more before they entered the cold marble halls of the castle. 

“I’m guessing they think anything that is below them is their entertainment.” Folcher replied as they made their way out into the hallways yet again. 

“Well, we are cute.” Philokrates hummed, 

“Especially Las.” He laughed and jabbed a finger into Lasair’s side. Las jumped and growled slapping a hand onto Philokrates shoulder. 

“Stop that Cemi! I’m not cute!” He huffed as Philokrates began to run down the hallway. 

“You’re cute and you know it!” Philokrates mocked. Lasair ran after his brother and Folcher, with a huff, followed as well. They chased Philokrates around the central garden until the pup lead them up the stairs to the second floor. Their shouting and playful banter was quickly quieted down. 

“Let’s go to the Queen now- she should be somewhere up here right?” Folcher huffed, bending over and groaning. He still wasn’t feeling his best. 

“I don’t know where she would be.” Lasair shrugged before nervously walking over to someone making their way down the hallway. 

“Um… excuse me- miss?” Lasair squeaked- his knees shaking a bit as he approached the stranger. The other brothers followed him close behind, eyes exploring the stranger’s complex attire. 

“Yes, child?” They responded, their sharp bird like features contrasted by the cat ears on the top of their head. 

“I-I….” Lasair froze up, glancing back to his brothers unsure what to do. Folcher cleared his throat and stepped up to his side. 

“Do you know where the Queen’s room is?” He asked. Though Lasair was thankful Folcher had asked the question he was upset that he couldn’t make himself ask a question as simple as that. The lady nodded gently and pointed down the hallway. 

“Down the hall - it’s the second hall on your left at the very end of the hallway.”

The three boys walked through the hallways having to ask a few more people before they finally found their way to their mother’s room. They knocked on the door, testing the handle curiously before jumping back as the door was pulled open by their mother’s chamber woman. The lady smiled down at the three pups and quickly brought them into the room. Their mother’s room was spacious and well decorated. The queen’s bed was large and made with dark oak wood. The headboard was etched with scenes of peaceful flower filled fields. Nearly see through fabrics were draped over the bed held up by poles at each corner of the it. The theme to the room seemed to be soft creams, golds and reds. Across from her bed was a fire place with a pretty red carpet, set in front of it. Sitting beside a large window overlooking the city around their castle was their mother. She was relaxed in a light gown in a gilded chair with plush cushions and armrests. She was sewing a few needs into a pillow wrested on her lap. 

“Hello boys.” She smiled; her fur radiant in the sun’s light. 

“How have you three been?” She asked as the chamber woman brought the three pillows to rest on. Lasair looked at the foot and a half - by foot and a half-sized pillow he had been handed. He set it down besides his mother’s upraised legs. She was resting them on a footrest while she watched her children get comfortable on the floor around her. 

“We’ve been alright but Lasair tried to drowned himself.” Philokrates laughed. The laugh was met with a kick from Lasair who was laying draped under the clear fabric of his mother’s gown. 

“I didn’t drown, you almost drowned me. I was swimming just fine before you two tried to save me.” He retorted. Their mother looked over them before leaning over to look at Lasair. 

“So you went swimming? In the pond I assume?” She asked curiously. Lasair nodded, looking away from his mother’s gaze and watching the rays of sun light instead. He was happy to lay here with his mother and brothers in the sunlight. 

“Well, no wonder you three smell of fish.” She giggled returning to sewing a few glass beads into the pillow. The three pups relaxed into the pillows enjoying the soft sounds of people talking in the hallways and the sound of birds outside the window. 

“What did you want to talk to us about, Queen?” Folcher asked finally, looking up at his mother. 

“You may call me mother, my child.” She hummed and set her pillow down as she thought about the question. 

“Oh! Right, I wanted to let you know that your brother Lasair, who was not acknowledged by your father- will be seen as just as princely as you three.” She hummed, swinging her legs over so she wouldn’t step on her pups. She stood up and walked over to her dressers pulling open a small chest sitting on top of the central one. She rummaged around in the jewelry chest for a moment before pulling out what looked like a thin banded necklace. 

“This is your crown, Lasair. Please stand here before me and receive it.” She almost demanded. Lasair stood and walked over to his mother, his eyes never once leaving the floor. 

“My son, Lasair Níos Lu, as your brothers and the chamber woman as witnesses you are here by christened as a prince.” She stated proudly and rested the thin band onto his head. A small deep red gem - a ruby- was at the center of his forehead. A strange dark green gem with blue, black and gold through it dangle just between his eyes. Lasair couldn’t keep the grin off of his face.


	3. Blaze

BLAZE  
The three brothers Lasair Philokrates and Folcher were allowed to roam freely around the main building of the castle. Folcher the older brother was someone who really enjoyed a good book. Whenever he was keeping an eye on his two younger brothers or playing in the garden, he would find a nice place to sit down with a book. When he was allowed in the castle’s library, he ended up asking them to reserve a small space on the second level for him so he could have a quiet space to read. He wasn’t a very big fan of books like geography or history but was easily fascinated by romance, horror or books on plants and animals. 

The middle child Philokrates-or Cemi to the other two brothers, was someone who absolutely loved to cook. He was fascinated by food sciences, what herbs added what flavors and what different meats blended well with different fruits and vegetables. Philokrates often snuck away to watch the kitchen-wenches work, admiring their different skill levels and how well they worked together. He had managed to convince one of the chefs to teach him how to cook after hours of begging a pleading. He would often practice his skills and share his godly creations with his brothers.

Lasair the last born was pretty interested in the arts. Anything related to creating sculptures, paintings, drawings or any other form of art interested him. Though he wasn’t exactly good at art he was certainly a happy consumer of the art. He was decent - sort of, though his brothers insisted that he shouldn’t try and sell his work. 

These three boys fell into a nice pattern once their freedom was granted. In the mornings they would make their beds, small beds with a base of white wood and mattress of hay and feathers. They would head down to the main floor and Philokrates would prepare them some breakfast in the kitchen before the kitchen became too crowded to be used. After their meals they would split up for a few hours; Folcher vanishing into the library while Philokrates and Lasair stayed together. These two would play around in the garden, creating games like tag or pretending to be a warrior in battle with wooden swords or sticks they would find in the garden. By noon Folcher would return to the garden and join in the fun until their Nanny Abrina would come to fetch them. They would be served a light lunch of dried meats, cheeses and fruits before brought to a sort of classroom where they were taught by a tall skinny antelope Professor name Adante. 

Folcher and Philokrates seemed to take to reading easily though Lasair was having issues. It took him longer to finish reading as to him, the letters seamed to move across the page. J’s and other letters seemed to be flipped and he could never remember if a word should be spelled with ae or ea. Similarly, words that sounded the same to him like to, too or two were baffling to him when he tried to spell them. When they were introduced to silent letters Lasair began to skip lessons, frustrated and upset that he was having so much trouble while his brothers seemed nearly perfect at these same tasks. When it came to mathematics and the sciences he felt like he grasped it a bit better than reading. If he was allowed to have a sheet of formulas and if he had seen an example of what he was supposed to do he was almost always able to solve for what the problem was asking. It of course took him a bit longer to grasp it but once he understood what he was supposed to do or how to start the equation he wouldn’t need to ask how ever again. The only thing he had an issue with were theoretical mathematics and chemistry. He wasn’t really a fan on looking at how different elements reacted to each other. 

After their lessons they would be released into the halls to get their dinners. Often times they would bring their meals up to their tower and relax by their now unlocked windows to admire the sea and talk about happenings around the castle or review the lesson they had gone over the day before. One moment the three brothers had experienced together was Lasair’s building frustration with their professor. He worked with each three individually only taking momentary brakes to allow them to figure things out on their own. This was helpful, the one on one help, though the material just wasn’t clicking for Lasair. Once when he was sitting with his book on mathematics Lasair’s frustrated fidgeting became too much for their professor. Adante had walked over to Lasair and rested a hand on his shoulder. He had asked him to leave the room, to go take a walk and calm down. However- what he wasn't expecting from Lasair was the reaction. Lasair had startled at the touch as he was so focused on the material. The moment Adante’s hand touched his shoulder Lasair had spun around and bit into his forearm. 

The bite had only lasted a good moment though his sharp puppy teeth had definitely broken the skin. The older brothers had startled at the bite as Adante had let out a loud cry of pain. Lasair seemed startled by his own reaction, having stepped back and covered his mouth with his paws. 

“What in the hell do you think you are doing?!” Adante had yelled, holding his hand over the wound which was bleeding pretty badly. Lasair had stood from his seat and was just watching the blood drip down from Adante’s arm. 

“I- I didn’t mean to- I’m sorry-“ He stammered once he had finally gotten ahold of himself again. Adante glared down at his student turning around and storming out of the classroom. 

“You three are dismissed for today.” He huffed, vanishing down the hallway. Lasair glanced around the room, still holding his muzzle in his hands. Folcher and Philokrates both stared at Lasair wide eyed. 

“What was that all about?” Folcher asked, stepping closer to Lasair. He sunk down to a squat hiding his face in his knees. He was feeling shaky and nervous now- worried about what would happen once his father heard about what he had just done. 

“I don’t know- I don’t know he just- he startled me!” He explained. Philokrates had gone to the door and was looking out into the hallway while Folcher tried to calm Lasair down. 

“And your response was to bite him?!” Philokrates questioned, glancing over his brother’s posture, a brow raised. Las peaked up from between his fingers, tears threatening to escape his eyes. 

“I didn’t mean to!” He barked in response, shivering from all of the adrenaline pumping through his veins. 

The three brothers had picked up their books and walked out of the room. Lasair was following far behind his brothers, just thinking over what had happened. The blood in his mouth reminded him of the undercooked deer Philokrates had fed them a few weeks earlier. It was sower yet not unpalatable. He hated to admit to himself that he enjoyed the flavor though felt bad for biting his professor. He was stuck on these thoughts until his brothers reminded him that it really wasn’t all his fault though he probably should write an apology letter to his professor. With a little bit of help from his brothers Lasair had written, albeit a very messy and filled with spelling and grammar errors, an apology letter. 

The group wandered the halls stopping every few doorways to ask if anyone had seen their professor. It took them a bit to find the man, who had retreated to the medical ward to get the bite looked at. Adante looked surprised when Lasair walked into the room along with his brothers. He seemed to sit taller in his seat hiding his look of nervousness from the group. 

“I Uh… I wanted to apologize again for biting you.” Lasair squeaked, keeping his eyes on the ground as Folcher had jabbed him in the side. 

“He really didn’t mean to bite you.” Philokrates stated, pushing Lasair’s arm up. Lasair held out the letter which had been dressed up with a wax seal a piece of ribbon. Adante glanced down at the letter then cautiously reached out to grab the letter from the child. 

Despite the display, Lasair was in debate with himself. He was shocked at himself and how he had reacted to being touched but the aftermath was conflicting to him. He wasn’t sure if he was showing remorse for his actions because that was what was expected from him by his brothers or because he actually felt sorry for what he had done. There was one thing Lasair was sure of however, the taste of the blood was certainly nice. 

The routine of the three boys had not been changed by the incident. If anything, Lasair got more attention from their professor and was kept after class to review their lessons. During their breaks in the central garden Lasair would split off from his brothers exploring the far corners of the garden on his own. He was curious about the animals that were in the garden- he had seen rabbits and small rodents. He had spotted birds, lizards and turtles. He was also aware of the fish and amphibious critters in the pond. He would bring his brothers what he had managed to catch, the animals often times being in a state of panic or obvious distress when being presented.

“Hey, check this out Folcher!” He had hummed sitting down with a small black duck held firmly in his hands. It squawked and quacked waggling its feat as it tried to escape from his hands. 

“Awe put it down, Las.” Folcher sighed, looking up from a book he had taken down from the library. He had been laying against a decorative bolder in a spot they had claimed as their own. It was close to the pond though surrounded by reeds and boulders. They had placed down several blankets and pillows there along with a small basket filled with shells and small trinkets they had found in the garden. 

“But it’s so soft, Folch! Come on- it took me forever to catch it!” Lasair complained, pressing the bird into Folcher’s lap. Folcher let out a slight growl closing his book as quickly as he could so the pages wouldn’t be ruined by the bird’s flailing appendages. 

“Las stop! You’re going to ruin my book!” He huffed pushing the bird away. Lasair shrugged seemingly amused by his brother’s reaction. 

“All you care about is your books.” He hummed turning around to walk back through the reeds to find Philokrates. 

The older brother was resting in the sand going over a book on how to start a campfire. He had a bundle of sticks stacked around a small pile of sawdust. 

“Cemi, what are you doing?” Lasair asked as he sat down besides the makeshift fire pit. Philokrates had pushed a small bundle of rocks around the pile of sticks to at least try and keep the fire from escaping. 

“I’m trying to make a cooking spot for us.” Philokrates replied, glancing over the bird in Lasair’s hands. 

“You know the grounds keeper isn’t going to let that stay here right?” Lasair smiled, forcing the bird to rest on his lap as he pet the soft feathers on its back and wings. Its mouth was open, panicked and obviously displeased though Lasair kept it still so he could pet them. 

“Well, that doesn’t matter- I just want a spot where you two can cook with me since you aren’t allowed in the kitchen.” He huffed sitting up on his knees to examine the panicked duck. 

“Las, let it go- it’s panting like a dog.” Philokrates pointed out. Lasair looked at the bird then at his brother, ears twitching backwards a moment. Both brothers had told him to put it down now. 

“Why? It took me forever to catch it-“

“Yeah? Well now you can put it back where you found it.”

Lasair sighed leaning back and tossing the duck up into the air. The bird frantically flew up and away from the pair. He watched it leave, a look of disappointment and boredom crossing his face. 

“Fine. There. It’s gone.” He murmured and Philokrates nodded then sat back letting out an irritated huff. 

“This just sucks- I can’t get the fire to light with this flint and steal.” He grumbled and tossed the book to the side. Lasair looked over to the book then crawled over to it taking a look at the pages while Philokrates breathed a bit of fire into the pile. 

“Well don’t cheat.” Lasair smirked as he read through the directions. 

“I think I want to try that.” He hummed pointing to a twine that was wrapped around a stick.

“You won’t be trying any of this. You can’t summon fire to you even if you tried.” Philokrates laughed. Lasair gaped at his older brother for a moment before smacking him with the book. 

“Jerk! That doesn’t mean I can’t make a fire by hand!” He shouted, pretty annoyed at his brother’s mocking words. Philokrates snorted and set the book carefully back down onto the ground besides him. He rubbed the sore spot on the side of his head where the book had hit before standing. 

“Calm down, I was just joking. Well fine, I’ll let you try to make a fire.” Philokrates stamped out the fire he had started before rearranging the stones around the pit. 

“Set it up then, I’m just going to sit here.” Philokrates smirked, fully intent on mocking Lasair further if he couldn’t start a fire with the tools he was given. Lasair looked around him, separating the tinder from the kindling and kindling from the actual fire wood. He held a handful of pine needles in one hand reading the pages in the book in the other. He smiled a bit at what the book suggested and began digging around in his pockets pulling out some lint to add to the loose pile of pine needles in his other hand. He set the tinder at the center of the fire pit beginning at build a tee-pee shape out of the kindling around it. 

“What is fat wood?” Lasair asked as he read through the book. He wasn’t entirely sure he understood what resin infused wood would even look like. Philokrates shrugged also not sure what the book was referring to. Lasair returned to the pit scooping some ash from Philokrate’s fire around the tinder. He looked around him and sighed, hugging his arms to his chest. 

“Do you think we could find some steel wool and a battery?” He asked curiously and Philokrates laughed. 

“No, just make the fire already Lasair.” The older brother huffed and Lasair went back to reading. He paused and looked over to the fire then back at the book,

“Can we make a fire piston then?” He asked and Philokrates smiled a bit wider. 

“Nope.” 

Lasair finally set the book down and pulled over the flint and steel. He examined the surface of both, running his thumb over the rough edges of one piece and holding the smooth sharp piece in his other hand. He leaned over the little tee-pee he had made and struck the flint in steel over the tinder. Small sparks of fire shot out into the pine needles and lint mixture. The pile caught fire pretty quickly without him even breathing on it. Once Lasair was sure the kindling would catch on fire from the tinder he began to at the larger logs around it leaving plenty of space around the base so that air would still be able to move through. 

After minutes of waiting, the fire pit was filled with a bright wavering ball of fire. Lasair was grinning, proud of himself and how quickly he had set up the fire. 

“Wow, I actually thought you wouldn’t succeed.” Philokrates joked, a soft smile on his face. Lasair stuck his tongue out at his older brother. 

“What are we supposed to do now then?” Lasair murmured, placing his hand in the fire. The fire washed over his fur like steam just burning away dust and other impurities. 

“Well, we can just relax here. Once the fire burns down a bit, we can cook something.” Philokrates grinned. Lasair glanced up from the fire eyeing his brother curiously. 

“What do you mean? I haven’t cooked anything ever in my short life.” He hummed and sat back, the fiery hot hands of his hissing against the sand when he leaned back on them. 

“Well… I’ll teach you!” Philokrates stated in a determined tone of voice. Las smirked a bit wider at his brother’s expression. 

“Sure, but the only thing I’ll make is burnt meat.” He giggled, believing that this was what was expected from him by his brother. Philokrates nodded and scooted closer to the fire. 

“Y’know What? I think you should go grab something from the kitchen for us to cook.” Philokrates suggested. This peaked Lasair’s interest. 

“Oh? You mean like go and steal something? That… won’t Folcher get upset at us?” 

“Yes, Lasair- like stealing but like, maybe at the very least like… leave a note?” Philokrates shrugged.


	4. Bonfire

BONFIRE  
Lasair had made his way down the long hallways of the castle back towards the main kitchen. He had only ever been in that kitchen a few brief times in the past. Only ever to follow Philokrates to help wash dishes and do other chores they had been pressed to do by the other workers among the castle. He didn’t really know where different items were stored but he had asked Philokrates where his goods were stored. The first thing he had been asked to fetch was a small cast iron pan along with some tongs and possibly a knife or two. Lasair had already given Philokrates a small pocket knife he had taken from some lord lounging in the gardens. The man they had stolen it from had been using it as butter or cheese knife and had left it on the edge of their blanket to catch a ball Lasair had thrown in an attempt to get the man to engage with him. The knife had easily slipped into Lasair’s pockets before the man had even turned around. The two had a nice game of catch afterwards. 

The second group of Items were a lot more difficult to get. He only knew where the cast iron pans were as he had been tasked with washing them a few times. The main problem with collecting the small pan however was the fact that there was always someone present in the kitchen. Thankfully there weren’t as many staff in the kitchens now as there would be if dinner was being prepared but there were still people wandering around. Lasair had slipped into the kitchen, cautiously walking around keeping low to the ground as he maneuvered his way over to the shelf the cast iron pans were kept on. He kept his head just below the countertops, peaking around the edges to see where the kitchen workers were. Despite his sneaking around the staff did know he was there but since he wasn’t currently in the way they didn’t bother stopping him as he made his way to the shelf and snatched up a cast iron pan. They did glance in his direction, curious as to what he was planning on doing with a pan at his age but didn’t stop the young prince as he made his way to the drawers with kitchen utensils in them. He had pulled open a few of them until he had found what he was looking for. A pair of tongs. 

Despite all of this Philokrates was still mocking Lasair. The brother was amused that Lasair had decided to act sneaky about fetching him the pan and tongs. 

“You know you could have just walked in- taken it then walked back out right?” Philokrates laughed as he shifted the fire around so that more of the coals were exposed. 

“Okay, now go find something we can cook. Um, try and get some vegetables and some meat and please- please bring me butter or oil. Otherwise it will be impossible to cook the food without burning the heck out of it.” Philokrates huffed, running a few fingers over the small pan. The younger brother nodded quickly and took off down the hallway back to the kitchen.

The kitchen had two food storage areas attached to it. One was a freezer and the other held dry goods. Lasair would need to hit both for what he wanted Philokrates to make him. He snuck past the kitchen staff as quietly as he could again only pausing at the freezer doors. He tried to pull it open to no avail which got the attention of one of the staff. 

“Oh, little prince. What are you doing in the kitchen?” They asked curiously, rubbing their hooked beak as they walked over to Lasair. The kid glanced up at them and backed up against the doors. 

“Uh… definitely not trying to get a leg of meat for my brother’s and myself-“ He murmured and the avian seamed to laugh. 

“Well I hope you don’t plan on eating it raw. You’d get a stomach ache.” They hummed, kneeling down to Lasair’s level. He flicked his ears backwards not used to being eye level with anyone but his brothers. He averted his eyes so he was looking at the tile covered kitchen floor instead of the avian’s face. 

“Well, no- Cemi’s going to cook it for me.” He murmured, ringing the skirt he wore as the avian looked him over. 

“Well then, I’m surprised the meat locker was your first destination. Wouldn’t you want to prepare your vegetables beforehand?” They asked with a large smirk. He glanced up at the avian, unsure what he was supposed to say. 

“Awe, you pups always know how to beg. Alright I’ll help you but you’re going to have to prepare the vegetables here with me.” They smirked a bit wider. Lasair lifted his ears looking more than a little bit bewildered. 

“But- I don’t know anything about cooking-“ He murmured. 

“You don’t need to know anything about cooking right now, we’re simply going to prepare the vegetables for your brother, Philokrates.” They nodded, running a scaled hand over their soft grey feathers. 

“First thing’s first let’s wash our hands. Then we can collect the veggies.” They guided Lasair along preparing a small spot along the wall where they could teach Lasair how to prepare the vegetables. The first thing they grabbed was a small red onion. The bird cut it in half then showed Lasair how to properly peel the onion before guiding him in dicing the vegetable into tiny pieces. They then went on grabbing a clove of garlic separating the individual pieces and crushing them with their palms. They pulled out a bit of basil chopping it finely and rested it onto the crushed garlic. They pulled out a bright yellow squash that looked somewhat like an octopus and removed one of its tendrils before shaving it down and placing the shavings into the pile. With a soft hum they began to put different spices into a glass bowl before adding what smelt like fish sauce to the dry goods. With another hum they scooped the diced vegetables into the bowl and added a bit of white wine before mixing it all together. 

“Now that’ll be what your meat will sit in. Try not to set it on fire.” They smirked, despite the castle being made of stone there were plenty of flammable items in the garden as well as in the hallways. 

“Now I assume you’ll be wanting some sides along with your meat?” The avian asked and Lasair nodded slowly. He had a small nick in his palm paw pad thanks to all the cutting but- the dish already smelt really good. 

“Alright, well then I will prepare a bit of squash for you and your brothers.” They smiled and Lasair nodded thanking them as respectfully as he could. The avian grabbed a small orange squash cutting its top and bottom off before removing the pumpkins center. 

“I’ll bake the seeds for you and Nan’s son as well.” They nodded as they tossed the goop to the side. They cute the pumpkin into ring shape slices and set it aside as well. They then pulled out several brown nuts, cutting crosses into the tops of their flesh before setting them in the bowl with the squash. 

“Alright, now we can get you your main course.” They nodded and walked with Lasair over to the freezer. 

“The front is more of a fridge with thawed meats and vegetables that need to be kept in cooler conditions. There’s a second door in the back where the freezer is.” The avian explained while they walked to the doors. 

“Now, you can take this thawed pig leg but let me explain how you’re going to cook it-“ They stated plainly. 

In no time Lasair was running back to the garden with a cloth full of goodies. Once he had set the makeshift bag down Philokrates sat down beside him examining what he had brought. 

“What’s all this?” He asked as Lasair set the leg of ham on its side. 

“The bird person helped me so if it doesn’t taste good, talk to them.” Lasair murmured and cut slits into the leg’s sides as he had been told to do before cooking. He began sticking clove into the slits and Philokrates looked disgusted. 

“Now hang on just a second- I’m the one who’s supposed to be cooking.” They huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. Lasair smiled up at Philokrates and pointed to the different containers still sitting on the cloth. 

“Then cook, those are the veggies and stuff.” He smirked and continued to add clove onto the piece of meat. He grabbed the pack of salt and black pepper and rubbed it into the meat’s surface before sitting back and thinking of what else he should do. 

“What’s this bowl full of?” Philokrates had asked, picking up the mixture of wine and diced vegetables. Lasair smiled and took it from his hand pulling it open and delicately poring a bit of the mixture over the surface of the leg. 

“Ugh- That stuff stinks.” Lasair huffed, not a fan of the rich smell of wine mixed with fish sauce. He stood up, taking the dripping leg with him and walked over to the fire. 

“Um… we don’t have a tri-pod…” He murmured and Philokrates shrugged vanishing for a moment into the garden brush before returning with three long branches. 

“Set that down and help me with this.” Philokrates demanded as he began removing sticks and adding them to the Now very small fire. Lasair nodded and began setting up the tripod with his brother. 

Once the three branches were hammered into the soft dirt and tied together with twine the two brothers hung the leg of ham over the fire by its ankle. Lasair looked over their makeshift cooking station and smiled proudly. 

“Wow- even if this doesn’t taste good- just look at this!” He laughed triumphantly. Philokrates huffed and returned to the cloth. 

“Add a bit more logs to the fire, Las and baste the thing.” He murmured, upset that Lasair was cooking more than he was. Lasair glanced over his brother, he was confused and a bit distressed over Philokrates tone of voice. He gulped a bit and asked in a quiet tone, 

“What does baste mean?” 

“Just- heck… fine- um, like- just slowly poor a bit of the liquid onto the leg while it cooks.” Philokrates tried to explain. Lasair glanced from the hanging leg back to his brother and shrugged adding two logs to the fire and sitting down. 

“How often do I do that?” He asked, stretching his legs out and watching the fire crawl onto the new logs. 

“Um… I guess just guess?” 

Lasair and Philokrates relaxed by the fire watching the leg begin to brown as it was cooked and smoked. Every now and then Lasair would poor a bit of the liquid over the leg, flinching every now and then as the wine caused the fire to spit. Once the fire was low enough and mostly embers Philokrates pulled out his cast iron pan and set it over the embers. He tossed the nuts onto the pan and sat back to watch the objects cook. 

“This better be worth it.” Lasair hummed, becoming bored with how slowly the meal was cooking. He jumped as a nut popped open with a bit of a hiss. 

“It’ll be worth it.” Philokrates assured as they waited for the rest of the nuts to pop open. The moment they were all open and steaming Philokrates carefully grabbed the hot pan and set the steaming morsels onto the ground. 

“Now for the squash.” He hummed as Lasair added more of the basting liquid. He placed the pan back over the embers adding some twigs and dried grass to get the fire going again. 

“There’s butter in there too, and the bird said it would taste better with the salt and pepper.” Lasair hummed as he spread the chunkier parts of the basting liquid onto the leg. Philokrates hummed in understanding and found the butter spreading it over the hot pan before sprinkling the pan with pepper and salt. He then added the rings of pumpkin onto the pan jumping back a bit as the pan spat at him. It didn’t take long for the pumpkin slices to cook, the pup flipping the slices every now and then to be sure to brown both sides. 

The two brothers were greeted by Folcher, returning from his corner of the garden to investigate the scent of cooked pig. Lasair was trying to get the heal of the leg untied as it felt as if the pork was finally finished cooking. Once everything was off the fire Lasair, Philokrates and their older brother Folcher sat down around the cloth to admire their cooking skills… or lack thereof. The leg was a bit scorched where the fire had been closest to it but other than that it looked delicious. Lasair pressed the pocket knife into the meat and cut it open revealing a nice salmon pink center. 

“Wow…” they all hummed in awe as the scent of the pork escaped the cut. 

“Okay- I think it was worth the wait.” Lasair smiled widely.


	5. Inferno

INFERNO  
The day the brothers entered their teenage years their mother, Queen Blume Feuer, demanded that her sons be allowed to roam through the streets of their great city. Their king, their mighty father Feuer Gott only agreed to this idea in hopes of not having to bother with the children running down the hallways disturbing his political guests any longer. 

The three brothers, Folcher, Philokrates and Lasair, routines changed quite significantly during this great summer where they had turned thirteen. Their schooling was cut down to the hours after dinner and the rest of their day was filled with exploring their father’s city surrounding the castle. They were not allowed to leave the city and were required to tell the guards where they were going before they left the safety of their castle 

Folcher wasn’t too interested in exploring the city until they had found papyrus sellers and stands that sold books and stories for less than a copper coin. The eldest brother would stick around his two younger siblings to make sure they didn’t get lost. However, nearing the end of their exploration he would insist on going to the book shops and newsstands to check out the different books and papers they owned.

Philokrates would often disappear into these stores looking for different recipes for foods around the world. Lasair on the other hand never really wanted to be at these types of stores. He would stay but Folcher’s side, looking around aimlessly. Folcher Would note how bored his brother was and took it upon himself to find a book that Lasair would be interested in. It took a while but Lasair found that comics in the newspapers along with graphic novels were something he could and would indulge in. 

Philokrates found that there were restaurants and booths that sold different ingredients, fruits, vegetables and cured meats. He loved talking to the owners of the stalls about household recipes and how to properly use the ingredients they sold. He would often spend all of his daily coins on one recipe to prepare for his two brothers. Some of them turned out well- brilliantly so, but others were so bad all three brothers would sit around the recipe to burn it. Folcher had to admit he didn’t enjoy the burning of recipes but his youngest brother Lasair loved the sort of comedic punishment of the recipe or its writer. Lasair and Folcher were both very happy with their brother’s creative cooking. Lasair would often help when Philokrates would let him but otherwise the two brothers would just sit and watch their brother work. 

Lasair’s ideal day was much different than that of his brother’s. He wanted to play, he wanted to run around the different neighborhoods and start a game or two of tag, catch or soccer. He had made many friends with the local kids though they would agree Lasair could be a bit strange sometimes. He had trouble reading people’s body language and would often push things a bit too far causing fights and arguments that would turn violent if his older brother didn’t step in. Lasair didn’t really understand that these fights weren’t an acceptable form of play- in fact he was often laughing or sporting a grin from ear to ear after these fights. Despite all of this, he managed to keep a small group of friends for himself - mostly thanks to Philokrates cooking if nothing else. 

All in all, that summer was a wild one filled with exploration and experimentation. Lasair had found that playing in the streets could be a thrilling experience. He would gather his friends in the mornings and start a game of chase or kick-ball. They would often run after strays and show off their catches to the children’s parents. This was also the time Lasair’s knowledge of pickpocketing began to increase. He had caught someone trying to snatch his coin bag from his belt and honestly Lasair had to admit that he was curious how to do this. 

He was taken in rather quickly by this friend, showing him things he had learned from his own father. Lasair was amazed if not annoyed at how well they could snatch items from his pockets without him even noticing. They taught him how to use distraction to his own advantage. This skill was something they knew was opportunistic- they warned Lasair not to go after anything in pockets where people could feel the objects leave the pockets. Or never to go after something that was chained down to someone’s belt. They pointed out perfect opportunities, items sticking out of pockets, wallets not pushed in all the way, coin bag handles sticking out of pockets and so on.

By this point Lasair was beginning to look and sound more like a pup from the street. He was often wearing street clothes lent to him by a friend’s parent and was often covered in dust and dirt. He had definitely taken to the accent of his friends, following their movements and replicating how they walked. His older brothers didn’t at all think this was any good for their brother but- they had to admit he looked happier. He was active and he learned the city streets pretty quickly. 

“Lasair, where’d my coin purse go?” Folcher asked with an annoyed huff. Lasair sat over his brother on an archway that sat above the path leading into the castle grounds.   
“I don’t know.” Lasair hummed as he quietly counted the coins from his brother’s coin purse. Folcher growled up at Lasair as Philokrates finally made it down to the two, his fur sparkling clean. 

“Lasair, give me back my coin purse.” Folcher demanded holding out a paw as he waited for his little coin bag to be dropped down to him. Lasair smiled and dropped down the purse but kept the coins to himself. 

“Lasair, are you serious?!” Folcher growled, crushing the bag into his palm as he tried to keep his anger under check. Philokrates smirked at the expression on his brother’s face, just sitting back and combing his fur with his claws. Lasair chuckled leaning over the archway and holding the few silver coins Folcher had had in his bag. 

“Awe come on, Folch. You weren’t going to be using these for anything but those dusty old books.” He hummed and Folcher leapt up grabbing Lasair’s wrist and yanked him off of the archway. He let out a startled yelp as they came tumbling down, dropping the coins as he fell. 

“That doesn’t matter, you jerk!” Folcher huffed, picking his coins up from the ground. Philokrates leaned over, giving Lasair a good poke on the side. Lasair flinched and wiped dust from his clothes and fur. 

“Owe, oh that stung.” He murmured quietly as he flexed his fingers. Folcher was already walking away from the two brothers. 

“Hey it’s not my fault you can’t keep your coins close!” Lasair barked as he stood from the dust. Philokrates shook his head, a slight look of annoyance on his face. 

“Las, you know taking stuff from us isn’t appreciated in the slightest. We’ve told you many times to leave our stuff alone.” Philokrates groaned and continued after Folcher. Lasair glared at his older brothers just crossing his arms over his chest. He was upset but- he realized he must have done something wrong if both were upset at him. He grumbled an apology to Folcher as the trio walked down the marble paved street. 

“I don’t think you actually are.” Folcher grumbled, tying the bag closed and tucking it into an inside pocket. Lasair glanced over Folcher’s body, determining that he was very upset as his shoulders were hunched and his body was stiff. He glanced away, shrugging his shoulders and falling back to Philokrates' side. 

“He’ll calm down after we get a good morning drink.” Philokrates smiled, nudging Lasair’s upper arm with his elbow. 

The three brothers had made their way down the wide-open street passing people riding camels or elite hot-blooded horses. They made their way down to a favorite cafe tucked in-between a wall of larger buildings. The little coffee shop was painted a bright green and seemed to be squished between two other stores and living spaces. There were four rectangular windows, two on either side of the wide-open oak wood door. The boys stopped just outside of the doors, Philokrates busy admiring the flower boxes under the windows that held well cared for tropical flowers. 

“I wonder if those could be used as an ingredient.” The boy asked himself quietly while Folcher checked to make sure his coin purse was still in his pocket. Lasair stayed close to his brother’s, knowing that people would recognize him pretty easily as a little thief. He wasn’t exactly allowed in these buildings on his own. 

“Booth or table, Cemi.” Folcher asked once he was sure he had enough coins to purchase something from the cafe. Their complaints towards their mother about the food always costing more than they had, had been addressed by one of their older siblings, all-Be-It begrudgingly. They had found out that the stores had been intentionally overpricing their goods to the young princes. Lasair didn’t seem to mind as he had been getting pretty good at walk by snatching. If he wanted something that was overpriced, he’d snatch it and either get away scot free or get in a good cardio work out for the day as the cashier at the stand he’d snatched from would chase him to try and get the items back.

“Booth of course.” Philokrates hummed in response to his older brother’s question. Lasair quickly followed his brothers into the building, shrinking down as best he could so the others would ignore him. They sat at a booth a little ways away from the doors so that the hot air of the streets didn’t ruin their morning. The three relaxed into the plush chairs made from deep green leather and rested their little heads on the cool wooden tables. Lasair sat close to the wall, tail wagging slowly behind him as his anxieties began to swell. He could already feel other people’s eyes on him… He was sure they weren’t happy to see him. 

Folcher glared up at Lasair for a moment before huffing and nudging his younger brother’s foot paw with his own. 

“Lasair… Las Calm down.” He hummed, sitting back when the waitress walked over to their table and handed them each a paper with many listings of meals and drink choices. Philokrates was already busy looking through the morning list, swinging his feet from side to side as he read through the breakfasts. Lasair looked through the pages as well, breathing as steadily as he could. 

“Some hot chocolate would be nice.” Philokrates smiled and Lasair simply stared at him for a moment. 

“But it’s already so hot out - why would you want to add to that.” He gagged as Folcher leaned back into the soft cushions of his seat. 

“Let him have the hot chocolate Las, we both know you’re going to order the strawberry milk.” He chuckled quietly. Lasair glared at the two of them. 

“But it’s the only good drink they serve here.” He grumbled crossing his arms over his chest. The others chuckled and they ordered their morning meals. 

The rest of the day went much more simply. Folcher led the group through the streets stopping when Lasair greeted a scruffy looking black and brown dog named Jet. Jet was one of Lasair’s closest friends from the streets. He often vanished for long periods of time with this dog. Lasair waved to his two brothers and they joined the pair in a quick game of football. They kicked around a small leather ball making room and assigning people to teams as more children joined. The game would last until Folcher pulled Lasair out of it so they could go get lunch. This day Lasair convinced Jet to join them in their meal. 

“He’s going to taste your cooking whether you like it or not, Cemi.” Lasair grinned, holding onto Jet’s wrist with one hand. Jet smiled over at the three, just taking a seat besides Lasair around their makeshift cooking station. This was his first time ever entering the castle walls. Lasair had loved the expressions on his friends' faces as he examined the different art pieces on the walls that were never changing to him and his brothers. It was nice to experience something new with someone he actually cared about. And he did care about Jet and his friends. They treated him like a person, and called him out for his wrong doings. 

“Thanks fr’inviting me over, Las. I’ve … never been in this castle before.” Jet murmured quietly- almost embarrassed over his lack of professional dress. Lasair was grinning, excited and happy that his friend was able to join him during his meal time in his home. 

“Oh of course! And don’t worry about your clothes no one here cares.” He barked, his tail wagging though the statement only made Jet squirm. Lasair quickly picked up on this and coughed a bit, realizing what he had said. 

“...ah… um, sorry.” He murmured, ears flicking back and eyes leaving the people around him. He returned to staring at the ground, pulling his knees in as Philokrates began cooking their lunch. 

“No, it’s fine Las.” Jet smiled, trying to reassure his friend. Folcher was nose deep in a book, ignoring the group. 

Philokrates glanced up from his preparation, glancing over the two who had suddenly stopped talking. 

“Ah come on, you can’t go and make this meal awkward already Las.” He snickered and tossed a raw chicken wing at his brother. Lasair flinched, glancing down at the wing and picked it up from the sand. 

“Well - I… I’m not sure what to say- I just made him feel so awkward.” Lasair admitted, glancing over to Jet who was looking around the beautiful garden. 

“No you didn’t, well- okay you did make me feel a bit out of place but not too awkward. So, what’s uh- what’s Cemi gonna make for us?” Jet asked as Lasair washed the wing in a bowl of water. 

“Spicy wings.” Lasair smiled, setting the wing back with the others. Philokrates took a batch of Fresno bright red peppers, and red and yellow habanero peppers and washed them in the bowl. Jet’s tail fluffed up at the sight of the hot peppers, glancing over to Lasair who was sharpening a knife for his brother. 

“Um- how…. How spicy are these going to be?” He asked in a nervous tone. Lasair grinned widely,

“You won’t know until you try them.” Lasair chuckled as he handed the knife over to Philokrates who began to remove the stems but left the centers and the seeds. 

“The seeds are what gives it the heat.” Philokrates hummed contently, pulling out a small hand-held blender. He packed the chopped-up peppers into the blender and added a few cloves of garlic along with a cup of white vinegar. 

“I don’t think I’ll be able to eat this.” Jet worried, and Las shrugged laying the wings out over a cooling rack- used for the moment to apply the sauces over.

Philokrates pulled up a fine metal strainer and strained the new sauce they had just made into a new bowl. Lasair was busy lighting the fire and setting up the tri stand. Once he was ready Philokrates hooked to bowl up over the fire to cook the sauce for a few minutes. 

“That’ll help with the flavor a bit I think- or so I’m told.” Philokrates shrugged as he set aside the contaminated cutting board and knife. 

“You mean to tell me you haven’t made this dish before?” Jet asked with a whimper. Las smiled leaning back in the sand. 

“He’s made something like this- just not with these ingredients.” Lasair assured his friend while Philokrates added a handful of salt and a pinch of sugar to the mix. 

“I’ll be right back- I’m going to go drop these off- Las, stir the pot while I clean off the cutting board and knife.” Philokrates ordered. Lasair nodded sharply and stirred the pot a bit before setting up a new pot full of vegetable oil. When Philokrates returned he took the sauce off of the hook above the fire and replaced it with the pot of vegetable oil.

“You’re going to want to sit back a bit- the oil will spit at you a bit and you’re not exactly heat proof.” Lasair smiled and Jet scooted back a foot. 

Once the pot was bubbling Philokrates dropped in a wing   
“Testing the heat- hmm.” He hummed pulling it out with a pair of tongs. He added the rest of them in when he had decided the pot was hot enough and let them slowly cook in the oil. Lasair stood and pulled Jet up beside him. 

“Come on, this will take an hour. I want to show you around my… erm, well- my dad’s garden I guess.” Lasair insisted and Jet stood from his seat. Folcher glanced up from his book, 

“It’s the kingdom’s garden.” Folcher corrected but Lasair turned on him with a snarl. 

“If it’s the kingdoms garden then why aren’t the kingdoms people allowed in here?” He asked before running off with Jet. 

Lasair led his fluffy friend over to a bush maze running into the hall, laughing as he vanished amongst the bushes. Jet yelled out for Lasair as their game of hide and go seek chase began. The maze wasn’t too extreme nor was it an easy maze to explore however Lasair had explored it many times before so he easily made it to the end. He relaxed against the shaped bushes while he called out Jet’s name. It took the other dog a long while before he had found his way out and by then he looked almost manic. Lasair wasn’t smiling anymore once he realized that Jet looked so panicked. 

“Are… you Alright?” He questioned and Jet took a moment to look around before chuckling then bursting out into laughter. 

“I-I thought I’d be lost in there forever!” He barked as Lasair joined him in the laughter. 

“Ah, sorry. That was supposed to be a bit of fun.” He insisted and Jet nodded, brushing his raised fur down a bit. 

“Yeah- sorry…”

“Sorry?” Lasair questioned as he led Jet around to the flower display. It was sectioned off from the rest of the garden and Lasair sat him down by the bright blue flowers so he could calm down a bit more. 

“Ah, for panicking.” Jet murmured nodding to him. Lasair shrugged as the pair relaxed by the flowers. He would use this time to allow Jet to catch his breath before eventually bringing his friend back to the group. 

Philokrates had set the fried wings out over the newly washed cooling rack, thanks to Folcher who was back to reading his book. He was ready to coat the wings with the hot sauce now. The sauce was in a large metal bowl and he was already tossing some wings in it. Lasair was already drooling, his hunger having built up from all his chasing. 

“The first batch is ready, there’s some ranch dressing there and glasses of milk there.” Philokrates nodded to the mat to his side. Folcher set his book to the side and Lasair joined his brother as they served themselves up. Lasair handed his plate to Jet and grabbed a bit more for himself.

Lasair took a cautious bite of the wing, smiling with surprise as the front taste wasn’t too spicy. Jet eyed Lasair for a moment before taking a deep breath and biting into the wing as well. He winced at the flavor quickly pulling it away from his lips and coughing at how spicy the wings had been. 

“Damn! That’s hot!” He yelped, quickly grabbing for his glass of milk. Lasair smiled- amused at his friend's reaction as he dipped the wing into the ranch dressing. 

Meals like these would occur often -with Lasair inviting his friends into the castle walls to join him and his brothers. He would host games of football, tag and swimming tournaments in the pond when he could. However, this would draw unwanted attention from the royal guests who didn’t appreciate street rats wandering around their garden.


	6. Campfire

CAMPFIRE  
Now that summer would be the highlight of Lasair’s life as far as he was concerned. He had absolute freedom to explore the kingdom, his abilities and his personality. He had made and lost friends, and had learned what boundaries were there with his brothers and these newly made friends. However, he also learned just what his father would accept from him as misbehaving. He had become a familiar face amongst the kingdom's people, but not in the way his father had hoped. He was a known thief, having learned to pickpocket, pick locks and even silently break open windows during his summer with the gang of pups. 

Due to the influx of reports the great King Fuer Gott called Lasair into the great hall. He had talked - or perhaps yelled at Lasair about his wrong doings yet Lasair didn’t really understand. He understood that his father was upset, but his group of friends had more sway over his opinions than his father. If they didn’t seem phased by the actions than he wasn’t sure why he was supposed to feel phased by these actions. 

He was dozing off as his father ranted at him, having decided that his father must have been over dramatizing the situation. He jumped when Fuer Gott slammed his hand onto his shoulder. 

“Are you not listening to me, your king? Your father?!” He shouted, causing Lasair to shrink down a bit away from him. He kept his eyes on the ground, his ears down and tail tucked. With a low growl the king stood over Lasair shoving him back a bit. 

“Do you not understand what you have done? You have defiled the name of the house of Lu!” The king continued, pacing the floor in front of him. Lasair remained quiet trying to understand why his father was so angry. To him he had just been playing a game with his friends. It wasn't as if he had hurt anybody and if he had, why would he need to be upset over that? 

“I’m sending you away, you obviously need to be taught how to act like a prince.” He continued while Lasair stared into the ground examining every crack that etched the stone floor. It was just a game, and he was very good at that game. He had so many trophies from this game, coins, jewelry and emblems. He knew what to look for when searching a house, the loot was almost always in bedrooms or office rooms. The only locks he had problems with so far were number or letter-based combination locks. 

“I’m sending you to Foamcat Academy, you will learn your place in this world and how to act. If you step out of line again, I will not hesitate to send you away to one of the other kingdoms.” He barked and Lasair glanced past his father to the house emblems behind him. 

“Is, that necessary?” Lasair asked finally, finding his voice amongst the constant bombardment of insults coming from his father. 

“Yes, boy- I’m afraid it is.” The king growled leaning over his son. 

“Will my brothers be with me?” He asked sternly, meeting his father’s gaze with one equally as cold. Fuer snarled standing taller over his son. 

“No, you will be going alone.” He stated plainly before turning and sending Lasair out. 

Lasair relaxed in his room, sitting in the windowsill overlooking the sea. He was thinking over what his father had told him, he had a week left of the summer- after that he would be sent away all on his own. He felt sick to his stomach but wasn’t sure why. Maybe he was anxious, yes- that must be the reason. He was anxious about being sent away and having to explore a new place all on his own. He didn’t have much to bring with him, no. He had a set of clothes packed in the bag his father had sent him, he already had a blanket and a small pillow set inside. He had a spare pocket knife and a few hygiene items but- other than that he wasn’t sure what to pack. 

“Las? Why, um- why are you packing?” Philokrates asked, sitting beside him on the window sill. Lasair sniffed looking up at his brother. 

“Um… I Uh…” he looked over to the bag, suddenly feeling a lot worse. He was afraid. He'd never been outside of the kingdom. He hadn't even been out of the city before, and he was always with his brothers. What was he supposed to do without them?

“Well?” Folcher asked as he entered the room. He gave a gentle kick to the bag. 

“How’d the meeting go with father?” 

“By the looks of things not well.” Philokrates answered before Lasair was even able to open his mouth. He leaned his head against the window’s edge just looking out into the distance to try and collect his thoughts. 

“He’s sending me away.” Lasair murmured finally. 

“He’s what?!” Both brothers looked up from what they were doing. They were shocked and confused, both approaching Lasair’s side.

“I said King Fuer Gott is sending me away.” Lasair huffed turning to look at the two. He was trying to hold back tears. 

The three brothers sat by the window watching the waves lap at the side of the castle. 

“What am I supposed to do?” Lasair asked, breaking the momentary silence. Folcher glanced over to his younger brother feeling guilty that he had allowed him to get this bad. 

“I’ll… talk to father- maybe I can convince him to let you stay?” He suggested.

“He seemed pretty dead set on sending me away, Folch.” Lasair sighed, resting his head back against the window’s edge. He wasn’t sure if he was upset- or if he was just making a show of being upset for his brother’s. They seemed concerned nonetheless. 

“Well- maybe I can convince him to let you stay.” Folcher murmured, walking towards the door. Philokrates was sniffling already, knowing exactly what would happen if their father was argued with. 

“I’m sorry you have to go, Las.” He huffed and Las leaned down to rest his head against his brother’s chest. 

“I think I did something wrong.” He murmured as Philokrates pulled him into a tight hug. He was almost weeping at this point, aware that it would be a long while before he’d see his brother again if he left that night. 

The last week of summer passed by slowly. The three brothers stayed in the castle walls as Lasair tried to write a note for his good friend Jet and his gang of ‘thugs’ as his father had begun calling them. Lasair had been spending quite a bit of time on it though it barely reached two pages. He had folded it as neatly as he could and placed it into a decorated envelope. The little red note was decorated with silver ink with little drawings of flowers and paw prints. It was sealed with a shimmery cream wax seal and handed to Folcher to be gifted to Jet once he had left. He would then be assisted by Philokrates to finish packing. He helped fold the blankets so he could have more than one, added in several outfits, sweaters and even a pair of shoes. 

On his last day with his brothers the three spent their time in the garden, splashing around in the pond. Lasair swam until his chest was tight from the chill of the water. He rested on the sand of the pond’s shore besides his older brothers for a long moment after the excessive swimming. They spent their last few hours together talking about their exploration of the city around their home. When Lasair was finally sent for, he brushed out his fur the best he could before walking with the guardsmen to his room. 

“Put these on, you’ll need to be dressed to the school’s requirements. On the plus side these clothes seem pretty warm so you won’t freeze your tail off out there.” The guard hummed as he handed Lasair a small pile of clothing. 

Lasair picked up the shirt first, looking over the black and purple striped polo shirt with the school’s crest over the right breast. He slipped it over his head and pulled his fur from the neck lining. It was a loosely fitting shirt which he appreciated though in this weather it was unbearably warm. He pulled on the black jeans and stretched his legs out a bit- unsure about how he felt about wearing pants. He was so used to his skirts and shorts that having cloth around his lower legs was just a strange feeling. 

“Well, how well does it fit?” The guard asked, checking their wrist for the time. Lasair glanced up and shrugged, grabbing the socks and pulling them on. They were cotton and grey with white stripes. He really didn’t like the feeling of the cotton but when he tried to remove them the guard tossed his shoes at him. 

“You’re going to want to put these on as well.” They hummed and Lasair quickly pulled the shoes onto his paws. 

“Um- what am I supposed to do with the laces?” He asked quietly. He had only ever worn sandals. The guard let out an irritated huff which caused Lasair to flinch. 

“Here, watch me tie this one and tie along with me.” They grumbled as patiently as they could. Lasair gulped and pulled one foot closer to himself while setting the other over to the guard. They knelt down and began showing him how to tie his shoes. 

It took Lasair a little longer than the guard had expected to finish tying the bow on his shoes. The moment he was finished the guard took his bag and began walking towards the door. 

“Put the sweater on, there’s a jacket in your side bag there.” He pointed to a travel bag his mother had packed for him. He grabbed it quickly and ran after the guard while trying to pull the black sweater over his shoulders. His bright red fur was already coating the fabric of his uniform. 

“Where are we going?” Lasair asked as he threw the travel bag over his shoulder. He was messing around with the school’s crest that was embroidered on the front of his jacket. 

“To the front of the castle. There’s a vehicle there that will take you to the train station. Here’s your school ID, your journal, a phone with your parent’s contacts information on it and some traveling money. Don’t lose these.” The guard ordered while handing him each piece. Lasair nodded quickly, placing the phone in his pocket along with the small wallet that held his id and cash card. He was sure he was supposed to have some coin money along with the card he was given but if this was true the guard wasn’t handing the cash to him. 

“Now, once you get to the train station, they’ll ask you for your ID and your ticket, your ticket is also in your wallet. Do not lose any of these items- if you do you might as well be dead to the world.” The guard warned. Lasair felt his ears flick to the back, a worried expression on his face. He shouldn’t have been surprised about this- he already knew his father didn’t really care for him much. 

The wolf was led through the halls to the front of the castle. He stood there, dressed head to toe in warm clothing, on the front patio of the castle while the vehicle, a nice shimmering green one, drove up to the front. The guard gently nudged him towards the vehicle and with a deep breath he stepped off of his father’s property for the last time. Lasair sat in the back of the vehicle, his head resting on the door’s side as he looked out of the darkly tinted windows out into the world around him. The driver gave him a short glance before the door was closed and the vehicle began to pull away. Lasair turned towards the castle, his brilliant blue eyes staring out the window up to the far tower with the window facing the sea. No one was in the window now, looking down on him as he left.

Lasair was relaxed in the back of the vehicle. The back of the vehicle where he now sat was spacious with four seats, two of each were facing each other. Above the pair Lasair was facing was a small window looking into the cab of the vehicle where the driver was. He could see clearly out of the two windows at his sides and with time he took to watching the road from the back window. His bags were both on the seat beside him. He watched the world shift from the brilliant golden sands of the desert to dull brown grasslands. He watched with a bored gaze as the brown grasslands shifted into more brilliant colors - blues, greens and reds. Trees, bushes and ferns covered the road’s sides. He watched the trees grow thicker the farther inland the vehicle drove. The thicker the trees grew the darker the sky became as time passed quickly. He saw each three of the suns set on each corner of his vision. By this time his stomach was twisting and he couldn’t sit still as he really had to relieve himself. They hadn’t made a stop since they had left and the journey was something Lasair was not at all used to. 

“Excuse me?” He murmured, tapping on the window looking into the cab. It slowly rolled open and a rat’s nose twitched gently through it. The young driver, a rat with snowy white fur with a black spot over its left eye, looked through the window to the little wolf. Lasair shifted, obviously uncomfortable -both with the strange creature looking him over and with how uncomfortable his body was. 

“Excuse me mister driver?” They murmured, ears flat to his skull and tail tucked as his bladder demanded to be relieved. The driver sniffed, waiting for the boy to speak. 

“When are we stopping?” He asked urgently as the rat seemed to start to roll the window back up. They paused and glanced back to him. 

“We can stop now.” They nodded, speaking in a very thick accent which Lasair could barely make out. 

And they did, they stopped there on the side of the abandoned road. The driver stepped out, stretching idly and straightening his clothes before stepping over to Lasair’s door. The driver was dressed nicely in a pair of grey trousers with a lighter grey button up shirt hidden mostly under a decorative button up vest. A nice golden watch with a silver chain led into the pocket on his chest. Lasair barely noticed this however as the moment the door was opened, he jumped out of the vehicle and walked towards the side of the road. 

“Where’s the bathroom-?” He asked in a soft squeak. The driver smirked, crossing their arms over their chest. 

“Can’t you see it, boy? There in front of you.” They nodded to the bushes on the side of the road. Lasair’s nervous expression shifted to one that would be unreadable to most. His cold blue eyes stared into the rats for a moment before he stepped into the woods. 

“Okay, driver. Thank you.” He hummed, saying what he thought would keep the rat from driving away. He didn’t want to be left here on his own, but also was hoping for a more private place to relieve himself. 

“Well- That dog certainly is of the line of Lu.” The driver huffed softly and leaned against the door of the vehicle. Lasair returned shortly- his eyes bouncing from bush to branch back to the bushes around him. He had never been in a place so crowded with vegetation. All of the new scents, sights and sounds were beginning to stress him out. There were so many new things around him that his nose -his eyes- his ears didn’t know what to focus on. He looked over to the strange bird in one tree then his ear flicked back to the sound of something moving in the bushes behind him then a new scent would flow into his nostrils. Lasair was looking very stressed over the whole situation. 

“Come on, pup- get back in the car.” They ordered, opening the door for them again. 

Lasair relaxed back into his seat, finding comfort in the small space. The woods had been a lot colder than he had expected. His fur radiated heat to the point he felt like he was glowing compared to the rest of the woods but it also felt as if his warmth was being sapped from his body into the woods around him. He was shivering slightly in the back of the vehicle as the driver closed the door besides him. He was left alone in the car for a few minutes which gave him time to look over the golden pocket watch he had taken from the driver’s chest. He hadn’t even realized he had taken it. He examined the plant like twisted gold that held within it a delicate looking watch. He fiddled with the chain for a few moments - debating what he should do with the watch. If he returned it, he was worried he would be yelled at for taking it but if he kept it, how would he keep the man from finding it? He didn’t like being yelled at; it made his heart race for some reason. It made his chest tighten up and he really didn’t like the feeling of their breath on him. 

He decided he would keep the watch after reliving a moment where his older brother Folcher caught him with one of his trinkets. He really didn’t want to be yelled at right now, not while he was already overwhelmed about the new surroundings. He tucked it into his bag just under his extra clothes. He hoped the rat wouldn’t decide to check his bag for the valuable item. 

The driver returned to the vehicle looking pretty relieved. He hadn’t noticed the missing watch yet. 

“Get comfortable, kid. It’s still a pretty long drive before we get to the train station.” He sighed and pulled away from the side of the road. Lasair leaned back in his seat, his stomach grumbling as he hadn’t eaten yet. He pulled open his side bag and began looking through the contents. There was a folded jacket, a phone charger, several pens, a small journal yet not a single bite of food. 

“Excuse me, driver?” He looked up through the open window into the cab of the vehicle. The driver glanced back at him from the mirror. 

“You can call me Jimmy, Y’know.” 

“Sorry, Excuse me- Jimmy?” Lasair corrected himself as he pushed the contents of his bag back together. 

“Yes, pup?” The rat smirked a bit as Lasair tied the side bag closed again. 

“You wouldn’t happen to have any food on you?” He asked quietly. The driver snorted and shook his head. 

“Nah kid. I don’t have anything on me that you could have.” He hummed and Lasair sat back with his bag. He nodded but said nothing as he watched the dark woodlands pass by. 

He could feel his eyelids drooping as the sky grew darker. He was being gently lulled into sleep by the motion of the vehicle driving through the woods. His head was resting on the top of his luggage bag while his arms were wrapped around his side bag. By the time they had made it to the train station he was sound asleep. 

“Hey kid, come on.” Jimmy nudged the little wolf with his spindly fingers. Lasair jolted awake, looking around frantically. For a moment he didn’t know where he was or what was going on around him. 

“Easy, kid- we’re at the train station.” Jimmy smirked and reached over to pull the luggage out of the vehicle. Lasair stifled a yawn and stretched a bit as he brought his side bag out with him. He looked around, looking for this so-called train station. It was unbearably cold and dark. The air nipped at his nose and he was shivering already. The woods ran right up to the podium where a little wooden building sat beside the tracks. Lasair could barely see the tracks though the building was well lit, a small gravel covered path sparkled with hanging lamps every few feet. The glow of the lights in the building leaked out into the world lighting up the leaf covered lawn and the small entryway.


	7. Charring

CHARRING  
The room behind the glittering glass glowed brightly. It seemed significantly warmer than the platform he stood on currently. Lasair hugged his arms over his chest, the cool weather around him causing him to shiver and shake. 

“Hello?” He called through the window slot. He could see his breath pass through the small gap and vanish into the warm room behind it. He heard some shuffling further in the room before a door at the back of the room swung open. An old badger dressed in a tailored grey and white suit stepped in, a groggy look on his face.

“Ay? Who’s there?” Came the gruff voice of the train master. 

“Um-“ Lasair stepped back, a little shocked over the appearance of the strange man. The hefty looking train master stepped closer to the window, his teeth pressing into the butt of his cigar. As the much older gentleman leered over the window’s edge at Lasair, the boy took a moment to dig through his pockets to pull out his ID and train ticket. 

The train master stared down at Lasair, an inquisitive look in his eyes. He looked over the wolf then the ID and the ticket. 

“What on Ira are you doing all the way out here, kid?” The mason asked finally, walking off to the door to the main building. Lasair watched the man vanish into the hall, pressing his ID back into his pocket. 

“Well- King Fuer Gott sent me away and-“ He began stuttering out a reply as the older man pushed open the door to the main building. 

“Well come on in kid,” He interrupted, waving for the boy to enter the building. Lasair gaped- not used to being interrupted by strangers but collected himself and grabbed his luggage bags and quickly entered the building. 

“Now kid, come over here and I’ll get you signed in. You’ll need to wake yourself up though and get yourself on that train.” The man hummed and led the kid through the short hall decorated in bright lights along with old pictures of nature scenes and old technology. Lasair took a moment to look over the walls. Garlands of gold and silver were wrapped over the frames of the old images. Small colorful lights decorated the garlands, glowing brightly against the pale grey and white wallpaper. The walls were split, the bottom a layer of wooden-panes that lead to the wall paper. 

“Alright boy, here.” The man waved to Lasair quickly bringing the boy out of his curious staring. Lasair rushed over to his side and stood at the little podium. The older gentleman pulled out a big leather-bound book with the name of the station, Elli station, presented in big curvy silver writing on its front. He opened it up and pointed to a line before handing Lasair a pen. Lasair took the pen from him and looked over the line.

“Sign your full name here in cursive if you can.” The older gentleman explained. Lasair nodded and began to try and sign his full name on the line. ‘Lasair Nios Lú’ each letter was curved yes but in a sloppy loopy sort of way. 

“That will do son, now I’ll take you up to your room and get you set up there.” He hummed and began leading Lasair through the hallways to a stairway. Lasair followed closely behind him trying to haul his luggage behind him without it flipping over. The man stopped in front of a tall oak door with a bronze twenty-three posted on its front. 

“Here you go, here’s your room key. Your train loads at six in the morning and you’ll need to give me the room key before you head out. I’d suggest getting up at five thirty if you can.” He hummed and pushed the door open for the boy once he had unlocked it. Lasair was shifting from foot to foot as he thought over the instructions he had been given. 

“Okay.” He mustered a response as his eyes fell on the little rickety bed in the center of an otherwise empty room. He glanced over his shoulder but the older man was already gone. 

Lasair stepped into the room and set his bags by the small bed’s side. He closed the door behind him once he had taken a good gander of the room around him. The walls were the same dull wallpaper wood frame mixture he had seen in the halls beforehand. There were dull black and white images of old employees posted on the walls and a strange circular symbol of one of the deities worshiped around these parts pinned above the headboard of his bed. He leaned his paws against the door, let his head fall between his arms and let out a long breath of air. He felt like screaming, like crying like starting a fight or throwing things around his room. He didn’t know what he was supposed to be doing- he had never done anything like this before and the confusion was frustrating him to the point that he wanted to leap out of the window onto the tracks below. He gave himself one good long minute to squeeze his eyes shut and collect himself before he moved to the bed. He still hadn’t had a meal that day and the hunger that he was feeling plus the confusion clouding his brain just forced him into an unpleasant state of mind. 

“I want to go home.” He murmured softly as he landed with a fwump onto the bed. He rested there on his back staring up at the ceiling as his confusion overlapped with his homesickness and fear. He felt like crying but he was feeling so much that he couldn’t understand why. He sat up after managing to push down the emotions under the confusion and began looking through the phone he had been given. He had a list of contacts, a photo album which was empty, a camera app, a notepad app which was empty and a clock app. He looked through the different apps then set an alarm up for the morning. He had a little bit of trouble figuring out how to set it up but once he had figured it out he scooted over to his luggage and pulled out his charger. 

The night passed pretty quickly, though Lasair was constantly flipping from one side to the other. He was hungry and uncomfortable sleeping in strange places. The boy was woken by the first alarm going off at five twenty-nine and he quickly gathered his things and headed back down the darkly lit stairs to return his room key. The older gentleman was already awake, his booming voice could be heard from the kitchen as he talked. Lasair crept to the kitchen, ears flicked back to show his nerves as he stepped into the very small white tiled room. There was a single stove surrounded by cramped counters that wrapped all the way around the room. Sitting at the center of the room was a table crowded with groceries and produce. Sitting at the table was a small woman dressed in a light blue gown with white ribbons tied in her fur. The badger turned her face to examine Lasair for a moment before returning to talking with the older man. 

“Is breakfast being served?” Lasair piped up after a moment of waiting for the pair to be finished talking. The older man glanced towards him and smiled a bit. 

“At seven, of course.” He hummed in an amused tone of voice. Lasair shifted from paw to paw before holding out the key. 

“Oh-okay, then can I return my key?” He asked and the man waved him off. 

“Go sit by the book and I’ll be with you in a moment.” He replied. Lasair nodded and walked off towards the book he had signed the night previous. The little podium it sat upon was sitting in the dark hall he had entered earlier that night. He found a spot against the wall and slid to a sitting position. He pushed his bag up against the wall and hugged the pack to his chest while staring into the darkly lit wallpaper. The designs, flowery as any wallpaper designs tended to be, were burned into his eyes as the clock ticked from five thirty to six. He was shaken from his daydream-like state by the rumbling of an old train on the tracks outside of the little building he had been sitting in. 

“That’d be your train.” The older man hummed as he walked towards him from the kitchen. Lasair looked up at the train master who was already pulling out a cigar to place between his lips. 

“Alright kid, hand me the key and sign here.” The man huffed, pushing the book open and pointing to the space besides his original signature. Lasair stood and walked over to the podium. He handed the man the room key then examined the spot he was supposed to sign. The area above his first signature read ‘time arrived’ and the spot above his new signature read ‘time left’. 

“Do you have your boarding pass?” The man asked and Lasair dug out his train ticket. The train master took the ticket, looked it over then walked with it towards the office Lasair had met him in earlier. 

“I’ll get you your boarding pass, kid- can I have your ID?” He asked and held out his hand, the door to the office was open and allowed the cool air from the open room to waft into the much warmer hallway. Lasair nodded quietly and pulled the ID from his wallet, handing it to him quickly. 

“Will there be food on the train?” He asked as the man pointed for him to leave the building and circle back around to the office’s window. Lasair did as he was told, picking his things up and walking around to the ticket window where he was handed his papers before being waved off. 

“Sure, there will be, can’t say it’ll be any good food but it’ll be food.” He stated before closing the ticket window ending the pair's conversation. Lasair looked through the window watching the older man turn away and meander out of the office before pulling his bag around and walking to the edge of the platform. With a soft sigh he waited, eyes half closed and body loose as the morning rush began to drift away. He examined the tree line right across from the platform and shivered as he watched a few bushes move. The area around the station was heavily wooded. Skyscraper tall pine trees stood over the thick canopy of dark oaks and tall thin birch trees. Between the trunks were young trees being choked out by bushes and ferns which filled the air with a sharp bitter scent. 

Lasair’s gaze was interrupted by the sudden blare of a train’s horn. He stepped backwards from the platform as the giant train rumbled to a halt - the middle few passenger cars meeting perfectly up with the platform’s edge. The side doors of each car slid open letting out a warm gust of air which was very welcoming to Lasair. It smelt so different from the sharp scent of the pine woods around him. It smelt of ash trays, sweets and old perfumes. 

“Tickets! Tickets here!” Came a loud call from one of the cart’s doors. Lasair turned to face the ticket collector who was leaning on the edge of the cart’s entryway. He quickly gathered his things to his side before shuffling towards the man. The weasel dressed in a soft grey sweater vest with black trousers glanced over Lasair as he held out his hand waiting for the boy to hand him his ticket. Lasair quickly handed the dark furred weasel the ticket. He watched them flip it from the front to the back then clip it with a ticket puncher. 

“You're the only one here, kid?” The man asked softly as if to not be heard by whoever might be standing just out of sight. 

“Yes, sir.” Lasair nodded quickly, taking another step towards the train car. 

“Well then, let’s get you on board.” The man hummed and scooped up the larger of Lasair’s two bags. 

“Th-thanks sir-“ 

“No need to. Follow me to your seat.” The weasel hummed and Lasair quickly threw his bag over his shoulder and followed him through the narrow halls of the train car. He breathed out a sigh of relief at the difference of temperatures between the car and the platform. It was well heated and the lighting was much warmer than that of the platform. Each seat was made of a soft red leather which faced a small wooden table and sat across another. There was storage below the seats and a pull-out bed above them. Everything was bathed in a soft warm golden glow of the lights in the alleyway of the car. 

“Here you are, kid. Take a seat.” The weasel pointed to a seat at the corner of the car. He had slid Lasair’s luggage under the seat. Lasair quickly scuttled up onto the cushiony seat setting his bag onto the table in front of him. 

“Um… excuse me-“ He looked up at the weasel who was already walking back to the door of the car. 

“Yes?”

“How long until we get to the private school?” Lasair asked in a softer tone, shrinking down a moment at the gaze he got from the weasel. 

“A pretty long while yet, so get comfortable.” They sighed and turned to walk back to the door. Lasair watched them, resting his chin on the soft fabric of his bag. The weasel stood at the door of the car for a few moments more, likely waiting for any stragglers to board. When no one else appeared on the platform of the train station he shifted on his heels and turned towards the engine. 

“All aboard!” He called loudly and stepped back into the car as the doors of the cars slid shut and locked into place. 

Lasair watched the station as the train pulled away. He was glad to be out of the cold but- still felt anxious and so hungry. He hadn’t had dinner or breakfast and it was bothering him. He shifted anxiously in his seat as he worked up the courage to ask this weasel for a meal. He didn’t care if it was just bread or slop- he just wanted something to eat. After a few moments of watching the woods blur into a soft grey fog he turned towards the weasel again. 

“Excuse me, ticket man?” Lasair waved a hand over his head, his bright orange paw pads seeming to glow in the golden light. The weasel lifted his head to examine the young wolf for a moment before walking over to him. 

“What do you want, kid?” He planted both hands onto the surface of the table causing Lasair to flinch back. He eyed the skinny man for a moment before shaking himself of his fear. 

“Are there meals available?” He asked in a quiet tone. The ferret tilted his head, the cap on his head sliding to the side. 

“What? Speak up, kid.” He stood up and crossed his arms over his chest. Lasair cleared his throat for a second time.

“Can I have something to eat? I wasn’t able to get any breakfast.” He added and the man nodded for a moment before walking off. 

“I’ll bring you a menu.” He stated over his shoulder.

Lasair let out a long sigh, relieved that he had gotten the question out. He was beginning to feel very anxious again and turned back towards the window of the train car. He dug his pail white claws into the back of his palm as he rested his back firmly against the cushiony seat. The longer he watched the trees blur together due to the speed the train was going the calmer he seemed to feel. 

“Here you go.” A laminated menu was shoved in front of Lasair with a slap. He jumped at the noise looking from the menu back to the ticket man. He tensed up even more when he realized the weasel was no longer alone. He had with him a broadly built bear who was dressed in a darkly colored work gown. 

“Hello young lad. I’ll stay in this cart with you till you get your order straight alright?” She smiled down at him. He eyed the massive teeth of the lady before forcing on a smile and opening up the menu. 

It took him a good moment to look over the menu. He was having trouble arranging the words and numbers and prices in his head. He ended up just pointing to an image of a waffle stack on the front of the menu after a long moment. 

“This please.” He murmured softly. The bear raised her brow at Lasair’s pointing before taking out her notepad. 

“Alright, how many do you want?” 

“I’d like two waffles please. And maybe a glass of water?” He murmured in a soft tone. He was nervous- why was he so nervous? He knew he shouldn’t be so nervous. 

“Alright, the waffles come with a side of eggs and sausages. How do you want your eggs?” She asked. Lasair gulped finding the social interaction all of a sudden way too much. He pressed his hands to his face for a moment as he looked over the image of the waffles on the menu. 

“Just like that.” He murmured softly, pointing to the image again. The bear let out a sigh and carefully reached over to pick the menu up. Lasair leaned out of her way.

“Alright, kiddo. I’ll be right back with your breakfast.” 

Lasair waited patiently in the soft seat of the train car. He glanced around the car idly, looking over the designs sewn into the seats of the car. They were in a deeper red than the red fabric of the seat and resembled patterns of leaves and flower petals. He ran his fingers over the designs, the soft feeling of the thread a comforting feeling. After a moment he found that he had a serious urge to take the fabric with him. It was beautiful and soft and could so easily be cut away from the actual seat. He glanced up from his seat and looked over to the weasel. The ticket man leaned up against the wall, face covered by his cap as he caught a bit of shut eye. This brought a smile to Lasair’s face. He turned towards the seat closest to the window and pushed the arm of the chair up. It creaked a bit as it was raised. 

Lasair looked over his shoulder to make sure the weasel was still sleeping and when he was sure he was he pulled his bag over to him and pulled out the knife he had been sent away with. He flipped it open and grinned, the soft silver glint of the weapon was familiar to him which was very comforting. He leaned onto his chest on top of the seat and cocked his head over the edge of the cushion. He decided it would be easier or perhaps less noticeable if he took a patch of the fabric from the fold on the bottom of the cushion rather than taking it right off of the top. With a soft hum he began gouging his knife into the fabric. He cut out a rectangle of the fabric about two inches by three inches wide. Once he had collected his piece he sat up and giggled at the successful collection. This caught the attention of the slumbering ticket man. 

“Snrk- hrm? What, what are you snickering at, kid?” They asked in an irritated tone. Lasair quickly looked up at the weasel, a slight look of shock crossing his face. 

“Um… Nothing?” He murmured, quickly tucking the fabric into his pocket. The movement caught the weasel off guard and the man began walking towards Lasair. His head was tilted slightly and a curious expression pulled its way onto his face. 

“What’ve you got there, kid?” They asked, freezing a foot away from the booth Lasair was sat in when he caught sight of the knife. Lasair glanced from the knife to the weasel then back again quickly closing the blade and placing it in his bag. 

“What did you do? Why were you playing with that knife?” The weasel huffed stepping closer and looking over the table. Lasair pulled his bag off of the table allowing him to examine it. 

“I didn’t do anything- I was just - just playing with the blade.” He lied.

“I don’t see any marks- but if I find out you vandalized this place you certainly will not be allowed back on board.” He warned. Lasair quickly shook his head in understanding, hugging his bag close to his chest. 

“I promise I didn’t do anything.” He lied again, digging his claws into the fabric of his bag. The weasel huffed, looking over Lasair suspiciously before turning and returning back to his spot. 

“You better not have.” They grumbled coldly.


	8. Coals

COALS  
“Are you alright there, dear?” The large bear asked as they approached carrying a tray stacked full of goodies. Lasair was shook from his anxious state by her voice, a soft smile flicking onto his face. He had gotten away with taking a scrap of the seat's fabric for now. That was all that mattered. Now he just needed to calm down- and the wonderful breakfast that was being presented to him would surely help with that. 

“Yes, I’m fine- I am. I was just playing with a knife and the ticket man scolded me.” He admitted quickly, setting his bag on the seat beside him. The bear smiled and batted her lashes at the weasel a moment before setting the tray of goodies down in front of Lasair.

“Awe, don’t worry about it, kid. We’re just trying to make sure no one vandalizes this here train. It’s pretty hard to keep these things looking as pretty as they do.” She smirked and scooted a glass of water over to Lasair. He looked over the glass for a moment. It looked like it had been carved from ice- but it was made from melted sand. It was so clear. He was used to drinking from cloudy glasses or from solid-colored glasses. This was just new to him. 

“Thank you.” He murmured and took a long sip from the water. He paused for a moment at the taste. It was a lot copperier and drier than he was used to. He wasn’t sure why or even how water could taste different from place to place but it was one of those little things that irritated him. He carefully slid the glass away from him. 

“You enjoy that meal now. I’ll come back to collect the pay and the plates from you when you’re finished.” She smiled and began to walk away. Lasair looked on after her, head tilted for a moment before realizing what she meant. 

“Pay? Like with money?” He murmured softly before pulling his bag around to his lap. He opened it and dug around until he found his wallet. He pulled it out and popped it open looking over what little spending money he had been given. Ah, so that’s where the guard had placed it.

“Oh- I hope this will be enough.” He murmured, feeling a pit lodge in the back of his throat again as his anxieties became quite real. Despite knowing he could probably just use the cash card- he felt that that cash didn’t really belong to him. He kept the wallet on the table by the plate as he cautiously began to eat. 

The waffles were dry but rather fluffy. It tasted more starchy than sweet. He eyed the sausages as he at the waffles, not liking how they looked. They looked like logs of poop that had been burnt to a crisp on a pan. They were black with bits of brown showing through. He eyed the eggs which were scrambled but looked much too fluffy to simply be cooked egg. He wished right then that Folcher and Philokrates were there with him. Philokrates would have scrapped this meal and remade it. It would have been fantastic. With a huff he closed his eyes and began to scoop the eggs into his mouth. He didn’t care- he was hungry. Food was food, wasn’t it? He wasn’t sure he could go another day denying his body what it so badly wanted. 

After a few mouthfuls of the eggs, he decided the meal wasn’t too terrible. He had taken one of the condiments given to him and tried it with the different foods. Ketchup tasted the best with the eggs- it wasn’t nearly as bland with it at the very least. He wasn’t a fan of the charred sticks. They weren’t even really sausages. Whatever herbs had been used in them had barley broken through the taste of the char. By the end of the meal, he had finished off the eggs and half of the waffles but had left the sausage mostly untouched. His water was also completely gone.

The weasel peaked up from under his hat. He had been keeping an eye on Lasair ever since the food had been delivered. Once he had finished, he had stepped out of the car to retrieve the bear woman, Lasair had guessed. He however, had pulled out the cloth full of goodies he had been storing from earlier and placed the remaining waffles into the cloth. He rolled it back up and shoved it back into his bag by the time the weasel and the bear had returned to the car. 

“How was the breakfast?” She asked curiously, a soft smile on her wide pudgy face. Lasair shifted in his seat wondering if he should be blunt with her or not. He took in a deep breath before nodding his head. 

“Yeah, it was alright.” He hummed softly and tried to help stack the plate and the cup up for her. She chuckled, taking the plate from him. 

“That’s good to hear. Now, as for the payment. The dish was ten dollars, and since you didn’t ask for anything fancy to drink, we won’t be charging you for the water.” She explained. Lasair’s shoulders loosened as he let out a sigh, relieved that he had enough for the meal. He opened his wallet again pulling out one of the laminated sheets of paper. 

“Here.” He hummed, handing the woman the money. She held it up to the light making sure the center of the bill shimmered correctly before nodding to him. 

“Enjoy the rest of your ride, kiddo.” 

Lasair nodded gently and watched the woman walk away from the table carrying the plate and glass. He leaned over the edge of the seat to look through the window of the door leading to the other car behind his. 

“Am I really the only one onboard?” He asked in a curious tone. He had been asking himself that question but the ticket man scoffed at it. 

“Of course, you aren’t the only passenger on board.” They hummed, walking over to where Lasair had been sat. 

“There are plenty of other passengers in other cars of the train though most of them are coming from quite a bit farther than you have come from.” He explained, taking a seat at the booth across from the spot Lasair had been sitting in. Lasair turned his bright blue eyes up at the weasel. The dark green of the ticket man’s eyes met his and didn’t look away, though the man shivered very slightly at the cold look in Lasair’s gaze. 

“You see- there are at least thirty individuals in this train in total.” He continued, turning to look away from Lasair. The boy let out a soft hum, nodding as he waited for the other to continue. 

“There are three in the car behind us and five in the car ahead of us.” 

“Why am I in a car all on my own?” Lasair had asked, cutting the weasel off from what they might have gone on to say. 

“I’m just the ticket collector, kid.” The weasel huffed, standing up in a hurry. Lasair watched him, his brows raised to show his concern. 

“Oh-I thought that since you did the tickets you also determined where people sat?” Lasair murmured confusedly as the weasel made his way back to leaning on the wall at the other side of the car. 

“No, the seating arrangements are all programmed by the computers to allow for the most comfort of the individuals booking the tickets.” He continued. Lasair glanced around him for a moment completely unsure about what the weasel was trying to explain. 

“Oh-okay.” 

He leaned back against his seat once he was sure he wasn’t going to be talked at again. He hadn’t really used a lot of the technology many of the people around him had access to. No, he found it confusing and tended to let his older brothers fiddle around with such items. He was good with one type of tech and that was tech designed for making fires. That stuff felt easy for him. All you had to do was find a properly textured rock, strike it against something that would make a spark and make the sparks land on something dry with plenty of access to fuel and oxygen. 

Hours passed as the light outside the car of the train began to grow brighter. The three suns were spinning idly in their orbits bringing forth the daylight finally. By noon every branch in every tree was easily spotted against the harsh light of the three suns. Each leaf shielding itself with thick guard cells and strange cellular structures to keep the heat of the suns from destroying their water sources. Lasair had remembered reading about that in a few of his brother’s books. Not that he was the one reading those books. No, he was always around when Folcher or Philokrates was reading out loud and reciting their notes. That was one of the only ways Lasair felt comfortable learning new topics, listening to the other’s lecture. 

He blinked idly, ears wiggling as he watched the woodlands blur together. Then he sat up straight bracing himself on the palms of his hands as he watched a large castle-like building appear through the woodlands. It was crowded by massive trees and built with grey stone. The school’s banners flew idly at each short tower which sat at either end of the large rectangular building. It looked almost as if the only part of the castle that had been built was the front half. 

The train rounded the grounds of the schools building and began to slow as it approached the platform. It seemed that this was one of the only ways onto the school grounds. The platform looked well used but also very well kept. The boarding platform was open to the world with a darker wooden overhang to protect it from the rain. Behind it was a very small building with a tall wooden fence-gate separating the platform from the rest of the school grounds. It looked as if the school visitors were pretty well regulated.

“Alright, kid. We’ve made it to the school- I’ll help you get your bags out then you’ll be on your own.” The ticket man huffed and began walking towards Lasair. The boy realized what they meant and quickly threw his bag over his shoulder and ducked under the seat yanking his bag up and out of the storage compartment by himself.

“No need!” He yelped, quickly rushing out of his booth into the narrow hall. The weasel eyed him a bit then shrugged leading Lasair to the entrance. Lasair chuckled softly to himself, it was a nervous laugh thanking himself quietly that he had gotten out of there before they found what he had done. 

Once he was off of the car, he began pulling his wallet out from his bag yet again. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do now. He hadn’t been directed to do anything after he had gotten on board the train so- what was he supposed to do now? He wandered over to the small building at the fence separating the platform from the rest of the school. A pudgy looking penguin was relaxed into the spinning chair at the center of the tiny building. They were busy watching something on their phone and had only glanced up to greet Lasair. 

“Um… excuse me?” Lasair murmured trying to get the stranger's attention. They barely glanced up at him again. 

“Mmyeah?” They grumbled lazily. Lasair cleared his throat and held out his ID. 

“I think I’m a student here?” He murmured hoping that he would be let in. He was beginning to feel very… uncomfortable now that he was up and moving. He hadn’t had a chance to actually find the bathroom in the car- or maybe he just didn’t feel brave enough to ask where one was. The penguin turned to peer over the edge of the little building to look at him. 

“Are you?” They asked, ignoring the ID Lasair was holding up to them. Lasair looked from his ID back to the penguin and nodded his head. 

“Yes?” He murmured, then glanced from the uniform he was wearing. 

“Yes?” The penguin asked in the same tone Lasair had asked. 

“Yes, I’m a student here!” Lasair snapped, finally getting fed up with the mocking tone of the penguin. The stranger seemed to smirk at this response. 

“Oh, alright then. I’m sure you have your required paperwork in order so you can get through the gates then?” They halfheartedly reached an arm out waiting for Lasair to hand him the papers. Lasair raised a brow for a moment before pulling out his bag and digging around in it again. He pulled out a folder and quickly handed it over to the penguin gate guard. They looked through the papers then snatched Lasair’s ID from his still outstretched hand before tossing the folder back to him. 

“Alright, just wait here while I get into contact with the director. They’ll send someone to pick you up and bring you to your room.” They explained, still holding Lasair’s ID while Lasair placed his paperwork back into his bag. 

It took a rather long while for anyone to get in contact with or pick up for the gate. Lasair had slid to a sitting position, rocking back and forth as his discomfort became severe. 

“Can someone please come and get me? I really have to pee!” He whispered loudly, feeling his body tense up. A loud cackle came from the little building and the penguin leaned out the window holding Lasair’s ID out for him. He quickly snatched it up and shoved it into his bag, not bothering to put it into his wallet. 

“Don’t need to crab at me, kid. You should have gone when you were on the train.” They said in a very mean tone. Lasair eyed him, tail tucked between his knees. 

“Please- is there a restroom nearby?” He whined even louder, the urgent feeling in his guts increasing his anxiety to the point he could barely hear himself. The penguin had a brief look of concern cross their face before sighing and motioning for the little wolf to come around the side of the building. 

“Come on then, there’s a restroom at this station.” They sighed, seeming to finally let down their rude demeanor. Lasair shot up from his spot on the ground and ran right to the fence gate. He was ushered into the space behind the little building. There was the relief he needed. A very small restroom right behind the gate’s building. He was quick about his trip in, leaving his bags outside the door. 

“Kids.” Came a muffled huff from outside the door. The moment he was finished with hands washed and shirt tucked back into his belt. Lasair made his way to the fence gate again. He froze when he saw his bags missing from where he had set them. The penguin was leaning against the building, a smug look on their face. 

“Where…” Lasair murmured in a soft tone. He was interrupted when the penguin pointed over to the four-wheeler sitting on a path leading through the large field to the large building that was his school. On it sat his bags along with an elderly goat dressed in a similar outfit the penguin was in. 

“Come on, kid!” They bleated, patting the seat beside him. 

“Let’s get you settled into your new home.”   
Lasair quickly sat down behind the goat, the four-wheeler pulling away before he had the chance to even look for a seat belt. 

They made their way to massive building. The front of it looked like a common school house, two floors with hundreds of windows stretching from one end to the other. The back of the building had the two towers and a third floor. He was walked in, the front double door made from dark oak wood with large panel windows surrounding it. The hallways were concrete blocks painted cream and were lined with posters stating basic inspirational quotes. Some were laminated and store bought while others looked like they had been made by students. He was marched down the hallways, passing doors that lead into classrooms that looked very much the same before pausing at the stairs. 

“Go up the stairs, turn to your left and go to the third room on your right.” The goat instructed. Lasair went to grab for his bags but was shoved away. 

“I’ll be taking these to your room.” He sighed and Lasair grabbed his bag anyways. 

“This one comes with me-“ He demanded, backing away from the goat. The goat eyed him and shrugged allowing Lasair to take his bag with him. He was waved off and the wolf trotted up the stairs. He made his way to the room he had been directed- or at least… he had thought he had. When he had gotten to the top of the stairs his brain said right was left and left was right so he… walked down the wrong hall but- got the right room on that side of the hall. 

He poked his head in, a curious look on his face as he looked around the empty classroom. No one was here. He looked around the hallway for a moment before sighing and finding a seat along the wall. He supposed whoever he was supposed to meet up with here hadn’t quite made it to the classroom. After a good minute had passed the door to the correct room he had meant to go to, opened and an elderly Labrador looked down the hall. 

“Boy, what are you doing over there?” The woman asked in a soft tone. Lasair looked up quickly before scrambling to his feet. He made his way to the right room and was sat down at the front of the room in front of the woman’s desk. Her name was apparently Fowler. She sat at her desk and examined her computer while Lasair got comfortable in his seat. 

“You will be in my classes, Lú. You will be living in my sector of the building and the other kids here will be introduced to you once the school trimester starts.” She explained and snorted a bit. Lasair tilted his head a bit. 

“What… what is a trimester?” He asked and she smiled.


	9. Combustion

COMBUSTION  
The routine Lasair would come to learn over the next few weeks before classes started, were rough for him. He was woken up at five in the morning before the first sun rose above the trees to start his day. He had about an hour or so to himself before he needed to leave the dorm room to get his breakfast at six. At six thirty he was required to visit his head teacher to go over his daily tasks and show her where every one of his six classes were to be held. Miss Fowler wanted to make sure Lasair knew where his classes were before the school semester began. Lasair knew where each class was to be held. His sciences were on the second floor, he was in intro to biology and chemistry. His mathematics were on the first floor of the main building, he was in basic algebra and geometry. His reading classes were also on the first floor of the main building however they were on the completely different side. He had basic literature and a second class that was only meant to assist him with his reading and writing. All in all, Lasair was ready for his classes to begin. 

Lasair hadn’t been the only kid dropped off on campus before the semester had begun. There were a gaggle of other children roaming the halls all hours of the day. Each child around Lasair had met and introduced himself and tended to have the same feel. They were all deviants, posturing and aggressive. It hadn’t taken Lasair very long to realize where he had been sent and why. His father thought he was a criminal.

The dorm building Lasair was living in was the left building off of the side of the main building. It was a basic grey rectangle with windows lining the full length of the structure. There were three levels and a chain link fence all along the roof as students were allowed there. There were two entrances on the length of the building, two leading into the courtyard of the campus and the other two leading to one of the two sports fields. Lasair lived on the second floor of the dormitory near the middle of the building off-shooting from the main building. He was lucky enough to get a room with a window looking into the courtyard. 

Lasair’s room would be shared with another once the semester began. His side of the room wasn’t really decorated. He had his bed on the left side of the room with the headboard pressed up against the wall with the window. He had replaced the grey blanket he had been given with the brilliant red and gold patterned blanket his mother had packed him and hand pressed his pillow up against the standard one he was given by the school. He had pushed his bags under his bed - his clothes were laid inside a small dresser with two drawers besides his bed. He had two sets of casual clothes and had been given four more school uniforms. Lasair wasn’t used to wearing the school uniforms still, preferring to go about the halls with his shirt tied around his waist instead of actually wearing it. 

Lasair tended to spend the main part of his days before the semester exploring his campus and avoiding the other students. Many of the students here were older than him and stood a great deal taller. He really didn’t want to start anything but was prepared to protect himself if he absolutely needed to. He wasn’t trained in hand-to-hand combat but he still knew how to brawl thanks to having his brothers and his street friend, Jake. Oh, he missed them. He missed them all very much. Here he was alone and surrounded by people that wanted to rule over him. He was glad his breeding wasn’t known- to them he was just another brilliantly colored k-nine living on the campus of this plain boarding school. He predicted that if they had known who he was, he would have been targeted for it. He was aware of how much the common people didn’t care for how his father ran things, but he was trying to distance himself from the political side of things to try and save himself from the mental turmoil of it all. 

Lasair was busy lounging on the windowsill of his dorm room. The screen on the window was set against his bed and the window itself was propped up with a board of wood. He had one leg draped over the edge of the windowsill while the other was folded in front of him. He was scratching down some scenery sketches in a small leather-bound notebook he had been given by the school. He loved the view he had over the courtyard; a large area of bricks laid in a spiral pattern around a small fountain with a trio of smiling boys playing in the water at its center. There were plenty of benches set along the paths that lead from one building to another. Along the sides of each building were flower gardens full of small shrub-like plants and ferns. It was certainly something new to Lasair. He needed to get this scene down in his books just right and maybe if it looked good enough, he would send it to his brothers back at home. 

He was startled by a crumpled-up piece of paper that had been chucked at him from the ground level. He watched the ball of paper bounce off of his book onto the floor. He leaned over looking down and saw a small group of kids grinning up at him.

“Hey, pretty boy! Are you just gonna stay up there all day? It’s been two weeks since you’ve gotten here and you haven’t bothered to introduce yourself to any of us!” A skinny looking Black-Labrador barked up at him. His long-sleeved shirt was tied around his waist though he still had his undershirt on. He had a group of three others standing around him. 

“I don’t really feel the need to introduce myself to people here- I really… don’t want to be here.” Lasair murmured in a response. The black lab cocked his head, his goofy smile only growing. 

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t introduce yourself to people, why not come down here and hang out? We were going to start a simple game o’ frisbee but we’re down a person.” He barked up at Lasair.

Lasair took a moment re re-count the people down below him and gave the group a bewildered look. 

“You have four people though, why would you need an extra?” He asked as he pulled his leg back into his room. 

“Come on man, just come down and join in the fun!” A black-footed-weasel yelled from the lab’s side. 

“Yeah, just come down and play!” Shouted a tuxedo-cat besides them. Lasair let out a sigh and slipped back into his room leaving the group of four wandering around under his windowsill. He placed his window screen back into place as the group protested and continued to beg Lasair to come down and join him. He left his window propped open, eyeing it for a moment before walking out of his dorm room. He wasn’t really sure why they wanted him to come down there but, mentally he was preparing himself for a good beating. 

He made his way down the narrow dormitory hallways and passed the many closed doors down to the stairs. The young red-wolf fixed his shirt around his shoulders, wearing it like a loose cape. He pushed his way past the heavy glass door out into the courtyard. The group of four had moved away from his window and were now sitting on a bench near the fountain.

“What do you guys want?” Lasair asked as he approached them, though cautiously. He was ready to book-it out of there at any moment though his chest was already starting to feel tight. Was he… nervous? 

“First things first, what can we call you- pretty boy?” The Labrador asked, the rest of the group looked over a bit surprised to see that Lasair had actually come down. Lasair fixed his undershirt a little while preparing a short introduction.

“My name’s Lasair, but you can call me Las.” He shrugged, stopping just besides the bench. 

“Alright, well my name’s Shian.” The Labrador smiled over to Lasair. 

“We can call you Las? Aha! I think ima call you Lassy, where’s little Timmy Lassy? Where is he, boy?!” The black footed ferret asked with a wide grin. Lasair eyed him a little, stepping back. 

“That’s Jame’s- um… And that’s Samantha and Taylor.” Shian pointed to the weasel first then to the cat and badger. Samantha the cat waved but Tayler the badger stayed quiet, just looking away as Lasair looked over to them. 

“Well, hi?” Lasair waved, not entirely sure how else he was supposed to introduce himself to these kids. 

“Now that all of our hello’s are over, we can get moving!” Shian barked and stood up from the bench. The others followed him as he began walking off towards the building. He would catch a small young rabbit girl running into the building out of the corner of his eye. They were quite interesting despite the many other solid-colored kids around them.

“Where are we going?” Lasair asked, falling behind the group with the badger. Tayler eyed him for a long moment before speaking up. Shian was busy roughhousing with James. 

“To the left field, there’re some frisbee goals posted around the edges and along the trail.” Taylor cleared his throat after a moment. Lasair nodded then skipped a step.

“Wait- there’s a trail out here? Like, through those woods?” He asked 

“Yeah, but- the um… The entrance to the trail isn’t really well marked. I found it the first day I got here and Shian found me not an hour after that.” He smiled lightly. His voice was soft and he kept his arms close to his chest. 

“Oh? I didn’t really- feel like exploring the first day I got here.” Lasair hummed, kicking at the carpet as they made their way through the narrow halls to the left field entrance. 

“The ride up here was really long- all I wanted to do was eat and sleep.” He stretched his arms out in front of him before holding them behind his head. Taylor shrugged before holding the door open for him as they continued after the trio. 

“My parents live close by here so the drive up wasn’t too long. As soon as I set up my room, I started looking around the campus.” He hummed quietly. Lasair could barely hear Taylor over the laughter of the group ahead of him. 

“Hm… how can you stand living in a place like this? It’s so cold out.” Lasair huffed, gaining a soft chuckle from the much smaller badger. 

“You think it’s cold out now, just wait until it starts snowing out.” 

“What’s snow like though, I’ve only read about that stuff in books. Is it like- grainy like sugar or powdery like flour?” Lasair asked as a red disk was placed into his hands. 

“Well- dry snow can feel like flour sometimes but usually it’s just a crumbly crushed ice texture.” Taylor explained. Lasair looked over the plastic red disk before nodding. 

“What are we supposed to do with these? Like, how does the game work?” He had asked as Shian ran off a few yards. 

“Now that you’re thinking about the game, you lose.” Samantha chuckled.

“I have no idea how this game works, Las- I just wanted to do something with people and you four are like- the only people around here so please, just throw me the frisbee!” Shian yelled, waving his arms above his head. 

Lasair gaped at the people around him, now unsure he wanted to be out here with them if they didn’t know what they were doing. Taylor sighed and stepped off to the side holding his hands up. 

“Pass it to me, I think we just- pass it to each other and try and make it into the weird metal chain things.” Taylor explained. Lasair flicked his wrist sending the flat disk sailing across the deep greenish blue colored grounds. Taylor caught it out of the sky before sending it in the direction of Shian. 

“Could we go to the trail while we do this?” Lasair asked and James the black footed weasel scoffed. 

“You want to play on hard mode right after joining the game?! Are you feeling ballsy Lassy?” They snickered loudly. Lasair shrugged and started moving closer to the woods as Shian tossed the frisbee to Samantha. 

“Sure, we can go onto the trail but I want to try and make these shots out here before we go in.” The lab huffed as he tossed it towards the goal. 

“Where is the entrance to the path through the woods anyways- Taylor?” Lasair asked as he paced the edge of the woods. He winced as the frisbee smacked him on the back of the head, 

“Ouch!”

“Bahaha! Heads up, Lassy!” James wheezed as Taylor picked the disk up from the ground. He threw it back into Samantha’s hands before gesturing for Lasair to follow him. 

“It’s just over this way.” He smirked, trying to hide his amusement over the hit. Lasair rubbed the back of his head where the disk had hit him, being sure to keep an eye on where the frisbee was being thrown this time as he walked alongside him. 

Lasair followed Taylor into the woods onto a rather narrow path that seemed more like a game trail than a walking or hiking track. The ground was mostly covered in leaves and moss where there were no small plants. The edges of the trail were crowded with shrubs and brambles that had the same faintly blue hue that the grass had. Every few yards there were frisbee goals though the goals all along this trail seemed to be very disused and rusted with plants growing up the shaft and vines crawling all along the chains. Even when the group tried to score a few points the frisbee would simply bounce off of the plants instead of becoming tangled in the chains. Eventually they all simply gave up in their attempts on playing the game and instead focused on the hike. 

“This place is beautiful- but so crowded.” Lasair hummed softly. It reminded him of the edges of his father’s garden. 

“Yeah, it’s a pretty neat little hiking trail.” Samantha agreed. She stepped off the trail to his side and vanished into the trees quickly. Lasair had trouble seeing her through the trees.

“There’re a few really nice hang-out spots in these woods. Betcha you can’t find a single one though- Lassy boy!” James cackled, slipping off the path and into the woods on the other side of the trail. Lasair watched him hop off and watched him vanish amongst the trees. He felt the tightness in his chest return as Shian smiled over to him waving the disk like it was a fan before he also hopped off the path into the woods. 

“Guys- wait, where are you going?” Lasair turned in place finding that Taylor had also left the path. He was left alone on the path but he could still hear the group tromping through the woods around him. 

“Guys?” Lasair spun around in a tight circle, listening to the sounds of the group's stomping feat. He had never been in an area this crowded yet so wide open. They had taken so many turns on this trail Lasair wasn’t sure he could even find his way back to the main campus on his own. 

“What are you waiting for Lassy boy- come find us!” James yelled from somewhere off the path. 

“Betha he can’t, he’s a desert dog- he’s never gonna find us.” Samantha laughed from the other side of the trail. It sounded like the group was moving away from him. Lasair gulped and stepped off the trail heading in the direction of one of the voices. 

“Nananana boo boo, you can’t catch me!” James laughed from somewhere to his left. 

Lasair locked onto Jame’s taunting and began following his voice. It took him a really long time to find his way to him. He was snapping through the brush, his fur snagged on the branches as did his clothes. 

“Ahahah! You sound like a bear crashing through the woods like that!” James cackled as Lasair stumbled into the clearing he had been standing in. He tripped over his own paws just stumbling to Jame’s side. 

“Shut up- I’ve never been in a forest before!” Lasair snapped, wincing at the sound of his own voice. James laughed softly, the sound sounding a little more nervous after Lasair’s outburst. 

“Jeaze dude, I was just joking-“ He murmured quietly. 

Lasair gave James an apologetic look, picking bits of twigs and leaves out of his fur. It was rather easy to get the debris out of his fur as it was a very fine double coat. 

“Sorry- just, don’t ditch me like that again please?” He murmured softly; his voice kept quiet as he listened around him. He could hear the other three still moving around in the woods around him. 

“Hah, well you can’t tell me what to do- bye bitch!” James crackled and bolted into the woods again. Lasair was quick to chase him not wanting to be left in the woods alone again. 

“We should find the others!” He barked as he stayed on Jame’s tail. James smiled over his shoulder, turning sharply onto one of the trails. Lasair skidded into a tree. 

“Ugh, fine! Just stay off my tail you weird multi-colored mutt.” Jame huffed, not bothering to hide his smirk as Lasair recovered from smacking into a tree. Lasair rubbed at his snout and stepped back onto the trail by Jame’s side. 

“You don’t need to be so rude, furry noodle.” Lasair rolled his eyes and James smirked a bit. 

“Haven’t heard that one before, hah- alright. Let’s find the other three then, it’s only fair since you already found me.” 

“Well, it wasn’t that hard to find you, you never stopped talking.” Lasair smiled and James laughed waving Lasair off as they walked down the path a little bit. 

The pair were quiet for only a moment before they could hear Shian talking off in the distance. They both hopped back off the path and went up a bit of a hill towards the sound of his voice. 

“Shh, stay quiet- I wanna spook them.” James whispered as he crouched down a bit in the foliage. Lasair eyed him for a moment before doing the same. He wasn’t sure if they should but- he was beginning to feel his chest tighten up again. Following others performances tended to relieve that terrible feeling. 

They crept up around the edges of the hillside, James pointing for Lasair to circle around the left side while he crept up to the right. Shian was busy chatting away with the much smaller Samantha. She could see Lasair pretty easily but seemed to be keeping quiet. His fur was such a brilliant red you would have had to be blind not to have seen him. 

“Bang!” James yelled loudly as he leapt out from the bushes. Lasair stepped out along with him but stayed quiet, the smile on his face mostly forced. He wasn’t sure what they were doing or why but Shian had let out a pretty loud yelp and was now doubled over his knees panting. 

“Are you alright?” Lasair giggled softly- the noise showing his nervousness. He was sure he had done something wrong now as he looked over the face of Samantha. He only started relaxing once Shian started laughing. The laugh started off small and quiet before it escalated into a deep chuckle. 

“Damn! You got me good! I thought my heart had leapt into my throat!” Shian laughed loudly. He stood straight after a moment stroking his ears back as he did so. 

“Oh- good, I thought I had done something-“ Lasair sighed in relief. Shian smiled over to Lasair and James, a mischievous look in his eyes. 

“Oh, you did something, alright!” Shian barked, stepping over to Lasair. Lasair took a step back as Shian stepped closer to him. 

“Um-“ He tensed up, bracing for impact. He thought the Labrador was about to hit him. 

“Take that!” Shian cackled punching Lasair gently in the arm. Lasair raised a brow, looking from his arm to Shains fist. 

“What… what the hell was that? That was so weak- I thought you were gonna-“ Lasair yelped as James punched him quite a bit harder in the upper arm. 

“Ouch!” He snarled, shoving a cackling James away from him. 

“Well, you said Shian’s was too soft.” James smirked, dusting the front of his shirt off. 

“Quit it out you three, where’s Taylor?” Samantha asked, motioning for the group of three to quiet down. Lasair looked around them but all he could see were trees and plants. 

“I’ll find him, just follow me.” Shian grinned sticking his nose up to the sky. Lasair watched him as he sniffed at the air before cautiously doing the same. He hadn’t really thought to do that, use his keen sense of smell. 

“He’s back down the hill somewhere.” Shian shrugged and started back down the hill. The group followed behind him though Lasair lagged behind. He took that moment to take in the scents of the group around him. 

Shian smelled very oily, as most Labradors tended to smell. His fur was a sleek black except for a tiny whitish pink spot on his nose and lip. His fur was medium length, but it was mostly glossy guard hairs. Samantha smelled a lot like cat-nip and carpet cleaner. Lasair assumed she must really like staying inside as she tended to eye the plants around her with disgust. Her fur was a silky soft flowing sort of fur, black patches mixing with her white patches softly. James smelled very strongly of ferret- most weasels just smelled like ferret. It was a scent Lasair really couldn’t describe nor did he want to. His fur was a dark brown fading to black wiry fur. 

Lasair blinked idly at the scents of the trio walking along the path in front of him. They were talking idly together as Shian led them down towards Taylor. Lasair pitched in a few opinions but kept mostly to himself as they walked. In the back of his head, he was wondering if he had found a niche of friends that he could hang out with during this… unusual length of time. He honestly hoped so.


	10. Devouring

Devouring  
It took the four a good while to find Taylor. He was sitting off the path in a clearing a bit deeper in the woods. When they had actually found Taylor, the short skinny badger was busying himself with a makeshift firepit sat in the middle of the small clearing. He was sitting in the dirt, his knees sinking into the soft moist soil each time he leaned over the firepit to move a stick into place.

“There you are! Man, we were calling for you and everything.” Shian smirked and plopped himself down right besides Taylor. 

“I thought the point of this game was to seek and find, not to give away your location right away,” Taylor smiled gently as he pulled his lighter out of his pocket. 

Lasair sat beside him, stretching his legs out in front of him as he kept his back to Taylor. The others sat around the firepit chatting to one another about their hopes for this year's classes. 

“Yeah? Well, when most of us were found I thought the game’s supposed to end.” Shian pouted. Taylor smirked and jabbed him in the side with a finger. 

“I win then? Hah! This is the hundredth time! You will never be able to find me.” He grinned and started a small fire in the makeshift pit. 

“The ground is too moist.” Lasair murmured under his breath. The group eyed him a bit, unsure what brought that up. 

“The fire won’t start because of how moist the ground is, you need dry woods or fabrics to start a fire on wet or moist ground and you’re using wet twigs and green branches you snapped off of the trees. It’s going to make more smoke than a fire.” He continued. 

“Well, if you know so much why not start a fire for us?” James scoffed, rolling his eyes. Taylor smiled at Lasair, a soft smile that hid his embarrassment. 

“Okay, here. You can start it if you want to.” He hummed and handed the lighter to Lasair. Lasair took it eagerly, standing up on his knees. He took one of the branches from the pile and pulled out his pocket knife to peel the bark off of the thick branch. Its insides were much drier than the outer wood. He began shaving off a small pile of the dry wood before lighting it with the lighter. He added small twigs to the tiny fire until it eventually began drying the rest of the wood around it and burning that. 

“There, a nice fire for this damp climate.” He smiled- was this… pride? Was he supposed to be feeling proud of this? It was just a fire. He wasn’t sure if it was impressive or not. 

“Damp? This isn’t a damp climate. You know what is a damp climate?” Samantha smirked and sat with her legs splayed open. Taylor gagged and James burst out laughing while Shian covered his eyes and made a vomiting noise. 

“Disgusting-“ Lasair snickered, taking the cue from the others to find this fraise amusing. 

“Thanks for the fire though, firewolf. Not sure why I didn’t ask you to do this beforehand.” Taylor smiled and poked Lasair on the shoulder. Lasair nodded to him, his smile staying on his face. 

“You’re welcome. I like making fires, so if you ever need anyone to burn something just ask me.” Lasair sighed and leaned over to add more wood to their fire. 

“We might. Hm, I think I’ll hang out with you guys a lot more. You lot are actually alright.” Samantha sighed and held her hands up to the fire. Shian smiled, his tail wagging quickly behind him. 

“Yes! We’d definitely like it if you stuck around.” He cackled loudly. Lasair shrugged a bit just keeping the fire alive as he listened to the group talk.

“After the fire we need to head back to the campus. I don’t want the administrators to think we’ve run off.” Taylor stated as he tossed a few leaves into the fire. 

“So- why did you lot get sent here?” Lasair asked as he sat back on his hands again. The others quieted down for a moment and the feeling around the fire began to feel a bit awkward. Shian cleared his throat and tossed a twig into the fire.

“Um, well- I just needed extra help with math. I’ve got dyscalculia.” He smiled up at the rest of them. James snickered softly,

“What is this- Alcoholics Anonymous?” He snorted. Samantha pulled her tail onto her lap and rolled her eyes. 

“Eh, my grades were lacking at my old school so my parents sent me here.” She huffed softly. 

“Yeah, same here.” Taylor shrugged and started tossing dirt onto the fire. Lasair pouted as they put the fire out. 

“Same here I suppose. This place must be really good at helping students that just- suck Huh?” He asked and started to help put the fire out. 

“Not really, it’s more or less the fact that the teachers here actually give a shit about the students.” Taylor shrugged and stood up from the ground. The others followed after him.

“I mean, my professor cared about me and my brothers yet I was the only one sent here.” He murmured, brushing off his pants. 

“Then maybe you did something to piss your parents off, like me.” James grinned, patting Lasair on his back as they left the little clearing. Lasair followed after him. 

“Ugh, that’s what I thought.” Lasair groaned unhappily.

The group went quiet for a long moment as they re-entered the campus grounds. Lasair followed the crew into the halls of the dormitories. He glanced around himself taking note of every small detail of the hall they were in. the hallways on the first floor were wider than the halls on the floors above. It seemed they wanted to increase the number of bedrooms as much as they could on the upper floors. The hallway they were walking down was primarily painted with grey gradients. Occasionally he’d pass by a room with a poster of a band plastered on its door or some movie poster. 

“Can we get something to eat?” Lasair asked, interrupting the group’s aimless chatter. They paused looking over to him then shrugged. 

“Uh, sure? Let’s go down to the kitchens.” Shian nodded and led the group back into the courtyard. They entered the main building then turned down a hall into a massive room filled with tables and chairs. Barely anyone was here in the dining hall. The people who were here were, a pretty little rabbit who Shian introduced was named Clarise being one of them, busy talking and playing card games. 

“It’s just here, the kitchen staff here are kinda grumpy though-” Shian murmured and Lasair shrugged. 

“I wasn’t going to ask them to cook for me. I can cook for myself.” He smirked and pushed the kitchen doors open. The group followed him in though they were greeted with a loud angry bird shriek. 

“What are you lot doing in my kitchen!?” A large feathery eagle shrieked as he rushed over to the group. Lasair winced at the noise, instantly covering his ears with his hands. 

“We’re um- well- uh-”

“Lasair here was going to cook us some breakfast-” Shian spoke up as Lasair trembled. The rest of the group were already trying to get back out of the room. 

“Oh really? Well, what exactly are you going to cook up for your friends?” The big old bird shrieked obviously in a disapproving tone. 

“Just a simple egg dish-” Lasair murmured. The cook smirked and gestured to the fridge, 

“Oh? Then cook.” They smirked, staying right over Lasair’s shoulder as the young wolf made his way around the kitchen. 

Lasair glanced idly around the kitchen before walking over to the stove. He set up the stove pulling out a few pots and pans. In one pot he began to prepare a broth, the other he prepared some water. He began washing some white-rice, before dumping it into the pot. He set up his pan, sauteing some onions before scrambling his eggs into the onions. He added some gelatin to the chicken stock he had taken from the fridge in the other pot after setting aside the scrambled eggs. He poured the finished stock into a glass dish, setting both the stock and the scrambled eggs into the fridge while he worked on his rice. He wanted the rice to be very hot. He turned away to chop up his button mushrooms, carrots and chuck his peas. He added them to the rice, allowing it all to cook together before turning to grab his cooled stock and eggs from the fridge. He cut the stock into cubes placing the gelatinized stock into one small dish before adding an equal number of eggs on top. He paused for a moment before grabbing some black pepper and green onions that he would add onto the top. He then added his broiling hot rice to the second small bowl. 

“I kinda ripped this idea out of a comic I read a year ago.” Lasair murmured as he pushed the two bowls over to the group. They grimaced at the sight- a little worried at the sight of cold eggs and steaming hot rice. Lasair was smiling, pouring the eggs into the rice and watching the gelatin stalk cubes melt as the rice reheated the eggs. 

“Uh, I’m not going to eat that.” James murmured as Lasair continued to serve up some bowls for the other three. Samantha pulled the two bowls over to her, copying what Lasair had done before mixing them together. She took a bite and smiled contently. 

“It’s like a chunkier chicken soup almost.” She giggled loudly as Shian cautiously did the same. Taylor was already halfway finished with his bowl. 

“I kinda changed it up a lot- well at least I added some different things. I don’t really like the fishy taste of the stuff they used in the comic.” Lasair explained as he began to eat his breakfast. The other kids snickered at that, finding it to be amusing trying to cook up something someone had read in a comic. 

“Well, I’ll say, you should ask to be in some cooking classes, kid.” The older man stated, crossing his arms over his chest. Lasair nodded, liking the suggestion. His day’s schedule was full already but maybe he could convince his admin to let him take classes after hours or on weekends. 

As the trimester continued, the kids stayed together as a group of five. They started classes, and in the classes they had together they would sit close to one another. Lasair favored sitting in the front of the class to be closer to the boards and the teacher’s desks. Lasair’s friends disliked this as it meant they would be scolded more often and interruptions from the course work were more easily noticed but reluctantly sat behind him. During lunch hours the kids would pull Lasair from his math class early so he could make them all something from the cook book he took from the class he was taking during the weekends. After hours they would hang out in the courtyard on sunny evenings to finish school work or in the library during bad weather. And when they say finish school work it was really just them messing around while occasionally working on their work. 

By the end of the first trimester Lasair’s attention had been taken away from his class work by a quite beautiful rabbit classmate he had seen wandering around the campus a few times. She wouldn’t give him the time of day if he had asked - even if he could have asked. No, he was too terrified to ask- she was just that stunning to him. His eyes would often wander away from his text books to gaze at her- only to quickly return if she looked back in his direction. He didn’t want to make things awkward but felt he was. 

The crew of his had noticed this strange behavior and began to tease him about it. He took the teasing well enough though Shian began to push for the idea of asking the rabbit out. First thing’s first- they needed to get Lasair to ask her for her name and to break this extreme awkward staring thing he’d gotten stuck doing. So, they did so, they sent him over to her group of friends in the quart yard. 

Lasair walked over and took a seat beside them in their semi-circle. He was all smiles and bright eyed, 

“Hey, sorry for the interruption. I heard you all talking’bout baking. Whatcha planning on making?” He asked curiously. The girls eyed him curiously, some of them a little perturbed that he had interrupted them. 

“We were planning on making a birthday cake and were arguing over what to make.” One smirked, the other girls shushing her and glaring in Lasair’s direction. 

“Oh nice, what kinds were you thinking about? I can suggest to you what you could make with what’s available in this place’s kitchen.” He hummed and looked towards the white rabbit who was rolling her eyes at him. 

“We don’t need your help, thanks. We don’t even know you.” They huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“Well let’s change that, hi, I’m Lasair.” He held his hand out to the rabbit who glared at the paw being held to her. 

“My pals back there are Tayler, Shian, Samantha and James.” Lasair shrugged taking the chance to shake one of the other girls’ hands while the rabbit continued to glare at him. He gestured back to his friends’ group who were snickering and giggling like the children they were. Lasair had swallowed his fear, and was currently trying his hardest not to show a lick of it.

“Well, I’m Kelsey, that’s Anisa and that angry one’s Clarise.” The brilliantly clean looking border collie smiled as she pointed to the snake, Anisa, and rabbit, Clarise. He already knew her name but being introduced to her finally was amazing. His smile widened even further. 

“Nice to meet you all, now- since we got each other’s names let’s hear’bout your birthday cake you’re trying to plan.” 

The first interaction was awkward, yes but at least the occasional discussions with her and her friends were less awkward than they would have been if Shian hadn’t pushed for the first conversation. Afterwards Lasair’s staring had lessened but his flirting had increased. Clarise was not too keen on responding to these advances but her friends found it incredibly amusing. Now it was Clarise’s friends poking fun at her for having someone crushing on her. 

By the middle of the second trimester Lasair and Clarise were familiar enough with one another to hold a conversation and sit in silence comfortably. She still wasn’t too keen on his advances but hadn’t turned any of his flirtatious antics down. 

“So, for the break Shian, James and I were planning on going camping. We were wondering if any of you would like to come along with us?” Lasair asked with a sigh as he flipped through the boring channels the campus allowed them to watch. Clarise looked up from her work-book and glanced at Kelsey who was busy studying with Samantha. 

“Um, well- I might join you three if Kelsey comes along?” She murmured quietly. Lasair smiled over to her then looked over to Kelsey with a hopeful gaze. He gave her the puppy-dog look hoping it would work.

“We’ll be checking out the abandoned building near the stream at the back of the campus if you’d find that interesting? I heard it’s haunted.” Shian added. He was sitting on the other side of Lasair, a book on his lap. 

“A haunted, abandoned house? We won’t be camping right next to it will we?” Kelsey asked quickly. Lasair shook his head, 

“No, no- heck no- we aren’t going to be sleeping anywhere close to it. You won’t make me.” He jabbed at Shian’s side. Shian cackled and swatted his hand away. 

“Okay fine, we won’t sleep by it but I still want to hike up to it.” Shian shrugged. 

“Where’re we getting the camping gear from?” Clarise asked. 

“The scouts have some camping gear we plan on using.” Shian hummed. He had joined the campus’s scouts at the beginning of the year. Shian loved exploring the woods more than Lasair loved cooking. 

The camping trip was agreed on, the area for the camping spot was chosen and by the start of the break Lasair and Shian had the place set up and ready for the trio to arrive. It was more than a mile away from the abandoned building that used to be the campus landlord’s home. Lasair was by the fire pit messing around with it with James while Shian was busy setting up the camp chairs and cooler full of foodstuffs and drinks. When the trio came up through the woods on the walking path they laughed and talked until each two tents were fully packed with sleeping bags, bags full of clothes and pillows. They would be spending nearly the entire week of break out here. 

Lasair was the main cook, making breakfast and dinner but they all skipped lunches- finding themselves to be so busy exploring the woods around the camping spot. They didn’t actually go up to the haunted house until Wednesday. Shian led the way. It took them nearly three hours to get to the building as they stopped every once in a while to drink and talk and take pictures of each other and the surroundings. By the time they got to the building Lasair had fallen to the back of the pack to talk with Clarise. 

“So, I know this is an awkward thing to ask but- would you go out with me?” Lasair asked in a hushed tone. Clarise looked up at him, ears perked and twitching around to listen to the world around her. 

“Like- as a date?” She asked in a similar hushed tone. The group ahead of them were talking and laughing about some strange story they had witnessed during the previous semester. 

“Yeah, as a date. I really like you, Clarise- like… I Like- like you, y’know?” He asked softly. She blinked at him and shrugged. 

“Um… Let- let me think about it okay?” She murmured and picked up her pace going to walk next to Kelsey. Lasair nodded falling further back from the pack knowing that that wasn’t likely a good answer. He knew he shouldn’t be angry; she was her own person and he was lucky enough to get as far as he did with her being a decent friend. But- he wanted more, he wanted her to be with him. He wanted her. 

They were cautiously walking around the abandoned building. Shian wanted to make sure the building was stable enough to enter and walk through before James and the rest of them actually entered the building. Lasair was busy exploring the framework of the building. The wood was dry and old, the wood along the left of the house next to a garage filled with old rusted car frames smelled strongly of gasoline. Lasair kicked an old plastic carton across the yard. It was the source of the scent. It seemed this place had been left mostly furnished by the owner. All of it was old, rotten or unusable now though. 

“Alright, we can go in.” Shian called over to the group. Lasair looked over to him and waved him off. 

“I’ll come in later, I’m going to check out the garage.” He called back to him. Shian nodded and led the rest of them into the building to explore the old wreck. 

Lasair watched them vanish into the building before moving to the garage. He looked over the two old frames of vehicles and went off to look at the barrels of caustic fluids. Likely old oil from the cars. He found some old gas canisters along the other side of the wall then wandered off to look over the old tools. He found some old matches in a can and placed them in his pocket before heading off to leave the garage. 

“Lasair? Are you in here?” Clarise asked, her head peeking into the garage. Lasair looked over to her and smiled a bit. 

“Yeah, I was actually on my way back out to join Shian and James back in the haunted house.” He gestured behind her to the home. Clarise looked back there and nodded, 

“Well, I was hoping I could speak to you alone.“ She pushed Lasair back a little, further into the old garage. Lasair blinked down at her hand. 

“What about?” Lasair asked as the rabbit moved past him onto the hood of one of the old cars. 

“About your question earlier.” She huffed and sat down, swinging her legs over the edge of the car’s hood. 

“Oh, the date question. Yeah- y’know you don’t have to-“ 

“Yeah, I don’t think I’d ever actually go out with you.” She interrupted quickly. Lasair closed his mouth, his ears cocking backwards a bit. 

“Yeah… To be completely honest with you, the only reason I ever actually hang out with you and your friends is because Kelsey and Anise find them fun to be around. You on the other hand are creepy and gross and I really don’t think I want to be around you anymore.” She continued, Lasair shrunk away from her a bit. The insults hurt and he realized that first impressions really did have an effect on relationships. 

“O-oh…” Lasair murmured and Clarise held her hand up. 

“You’re also incredibly ugly, your fur gets everywhere -mixing with my fur and even gets in the food you make. Also, your cooking - by the way- is disgusting.” She smirked, seeming to find his reaction to be very funny. He blinked, very confused as to where all of this was coming from. 

“Listen, I don’t know where all’f this is coming from but-“ 

“Oh, shut up. I hate your guts.” Clarise hissed and pulled out a small bag of crushed green herbs. She pulled out a paper and started to roll a very ugly joint. 

“You’re just a loser, you’ll always be just a loser.” She snickered and lit a joint. She took a long drag of the skunk smelling weed and relaxed against the frame of the car. Lasair pinned his ear and turned to leave the garage. 

“Right…” He muttered under his breath. 

“Hold on just a second,” she called after him. He looked back to her, 

“I told Kelsey and your friends I wanted some alone time with you. They all went back to the camp grounds.” She flicked a bit of ash onto the ground. Lasair looked over to her then back at the old abandoned house. He couldn’t hear anyone rummaging around and didn’t hear anyone talking. 

“Why?” He asked looking back over to Clarise. 

“If you hate me so much?” 

“Because it gives me time to chew you out for being a creepy asshole.” She spat, holding out the joint to him. He blinked from the joint back up to her, his eyes a cold icy blue. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling right now but knew it wasn’t a good feeling. No, he wanted to leave. 

“Come on, sit.” She patted the hood of the car besides her. Lasair grimaced a little at this. 

“Are you serious right now? No, fuck off.” He barked and turned around to walk back out of the garage. Clarise laughed and stood up running over to him. 

“You’re not going anywhere.” She grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him around to face her. Lasair reacted with a sharp snarl and backhanded her so hard it sent her stumbling backwards. She tripped over a piece of scrap metal laying on the ground and fell. Her head hit the edge of the car’s frame with a loud crack. Lasair blinked at the sudden fall, his hand still in the air. He watched blood begin to pool around Clarise’s head. He watched, shocked at his own actions as the joint she had lit rolled over to a dried pool of caustic fluids. With a pop and a spark, the ground caught flame as a tiny ember fell from the joint onto the puddle. 

“Clarise? Clarise?!” Lasair yelled and tried to grab her. She was getting cold fast; her head was bleeding quite a bit and she wasn’t breathing. He pulled her up by the shoulders but couldn’t lift her very far at all. The fire quickly spread to the walls, eating up the oxygen in the air and moving closer and closer to the barrels along the opposite wall. 

“Come on- come on Clarise- please!” He yelped, digging his pads into the ground as he tried to drag her corpse out of the burning garage. He watched as the fire finally made it to the other wall and something inside of him told him to leave her. He knew he could survive the fire- but the shrapnel that would have come from those barrels?

He dropped Clarise and ran out of the building just as the heat from the fire ignited the contents inside of the barrels causing them to explode. The hot fiery liquid covered everything in the garage including Clarise. The shock of the explosion caused the old rickety support beams in the garage to shift. The burning wood crumbled, collapsing onto the car frames. Lasair continued to move away as the fire engulfed the rest of the garage and ate away at Clarise. Fire licked at the windows and roared out of the door. Every minute that past caused the support beans to shift further until the entire roof collapsed inwards. The entire garage fell in on Clarise. 

Lasair fell to his knees, eyes wide and ruff up as he watched Clarise and the garage burn. He felt something wet slip from his eyes. He was crying, he had just killed a girl- he just watched her burn. He cursed loudly, grabbing his head in his hands. His claws dug into his fur as he screamed into his legs. He sobbed as the smoke pillars rose up into the air.


	11. Element

The next few hours went by like lightning. His buddies came right back to Lasair’s side when they saw the plume of smoke rise over the treetops. By the time they reached him the fire had spread to the old abandoned building and now both buildings burned before the sobbing firewolf. Shian had basically yanked Lasair to his feet, shaking the younger dog trying to get him to respond to words Lasair just couldn’t make out. He muttered and cried, 

“Clarise- Clarise is dead! She’s dead!” He howled, crumpling back down onto his knees as Shian rushed away towards the fire engulfed buildings. The insides of the buildings couldn’t be seen past all the hot red flames. 

The next thing Lasair could remember were shouting officers in tan uniforms. Torch lights shining around the dark woods behind him as the group of teens had been separated from one another and walked out of the woods. Lasair remembered the cuffs, he remembered how dry his throat felt, how wet his fur was from crying. He watched the fire trucks struggle through the overgrown road up to the old abandoned buildings as he was marched to the back of a police car. He watched his friends get put away in the backs of other trooper cars around him. No one knew what was going on, no one was ready to give a statement. 

Lasair tried to get his story straight in the back of the car- he was staying quiet as the officer in the front of the car talked to him. He was so stunned, shocked that what he had witnessed he had caused. He watched the woods pass him by as he was driven to a station, a blanket over his shoulders thanks to the officer. He knew what he would say and what he would ask for. First thing’s first he wanted to call his mother. He needed to talk to his mother, he didn’t know how to deal with what he had just seen. What he had just done. 

Lasair was left in an interrogation room for a long moment. He was sure his other friends were sat down at desks besides the officers in the bullpen but- here he was, sitting on a metal chair at a metal table. He hugged the blanket over his shoulders, sniffing away the tears that threatened to return. He had called his mother and explained briefly what had happened. In the end she had hired a lawyer for him. It would take a long while before they would arrive, so Lasair was set away from the eyes of the other officers. 

An officer sat across from him a while later. They handed him a water bottle, which he chugged nearly as soon as it had been given to him. 

“Hello, Lasair. I’m officer Crooks. Are you ready to tell me what happened earlier today?” The large German Shepherd asked. Lasair blinked up at him. He was terrified, unsure what he should or shouldn’t say. 

“Do you know where Clarise is, Lasair?” They continued after a moment of silence. Lasair nodded, shrugging afterwards. 

“Can you tell me where Clarise is?” officer Crooks asked. Lasair sniffed again, a tear running down his cheek. 

“She’s in the garage.” He whispered. He kept his eyes down on the metal table. He was staring tiredly down at his own reflection. 

“In... In the garage? Please elaborate, young man.” The older canine asked. Lasair shook his head, feeling as if he should remain quiet. 

“Is my mother on her way?” He asked with a sniff. He shivered violently as he kept his eyes on the cold metal table in front of him. The officer let out a slight huff, jolting up in his seat when the door to the interrogation room opened.

A tall man dressed in a fine grey and black suit stepped into the room holding a briefcase along with an arm full of folders. The red fox looked past his pair of black brimmed glasses to the officer sitting across from Lasair. 

“I’m here for Lasair Lu?” He looked down to the much younger canine who barely looked up to him. 

“We’ll need a moment together before you can continue your unlawful questioning.” The fox huffed and officer Crooks stood. He walked past the layer, nudging his shoulder with his own as he made his way out of the room. 

“Hello, Lasair.” The fox sat beside him and set his arm full of papers onto the table in front of himself. Lasair looked over the files and folders - many of them looking to be quickly pulled together case files from the offices upstairs. 

“I’m your lawyer for this case. You can call me mister Andillious.” He smiled and offered Lasair a hand shake. Lasair blinked, swallowing hard as he released a tight hand from the edge of his blanket to take Andilious’ hand. 

“Oh, your hand’s rather cold.” He shook the young wolf’s hand before releasing it again. Lasair pulled his hand back to the blanket’s edge once it was released. 

“Yeah.” He sniffed and returned his timid gaze down to the table. 

“Alright now, kid. First thing’s first. What did they ask you?” Mister Andillious asked him. Lasair sat for a moment trying to recall what they had just been talking about. He swallowed again before responding.

“Officer Crook’s asked me if I knew Clarise and where she was.” 

“And did you answer?” Andillious leaned over so he could peer seriously into Lasair’s face. Lasair gazed back into his look, his eyes a cold tired blue. 

“Yes. I knew Clarise.” He murmured and shivered again, 

“We were on a camping trip; I was going to ask her out-” He continued. Andillious quickly pulled out his notepad and began writing in it.

“Do you remember what happened before you were brought here? Before the fire started in the garage?” He asked. Lasair nodded slowly. He could barely recall what had happened- and what he did remember he wasn’t sure if he should admit. 

“We were hiking up to the abandoned house. We all split up to explore- I wanted to look through the garage because there were some old car frames in there.” Lasair explained as Mister Andillious continued writing.

“I passed Clarise on my way out to follow the path Shian had made to and from the building from our campsite. They had left the buildings before us.” Lasair stopped and looked up at Andillious. He nodded gently,

“They?” Mister Andellious asked. 

“Shian, James and Kelsy.” Lasair continued. 

“So, what happened between the time your friends left and you passed by Clarise?” Andellious asked. 

“I explored the garage.”

“Did you hear any of your friends say when they were leaving?”

“No, I just saw that they weren’t in the building across from the garage anymore.”

“Do you know why Clarise entered the garage after you left?” He asked. Lasair shook his head slowly. 

“No…” He murmured softly. He dropped his gaze and Mister Andillious let out a slight huff. 

“Lasair, please do not lie to me. I’m here to help you. Lying to me will only get you deeper into trouble.” 

Lasair pulled his blanket closer to himself over his shoulders. He was thinking over how Andillious had known he had been lying. It was the eye contact or lack thereof wasn’t it? 

“Now, tell me again. What happened that night before the garage lit up in flames?” Mister Andellious asked. Lasair sat up and leaned back in his chair. He blinked slowly, pressing his eyes closed.

“James, Shian and I went out on a camping trip with Clarise and Kelsey. Shian made a path up to the abandoned building from our campsite before we even set up the campsite so we could explore. That evening with the group I split off from the group of four to explore the garage because I saw there were some car-frames in it from the path we took. I don’t know how much time passed before Clarise came down from the house to the garage. We talked and smoked- well. She smoked.” He continued,

“She was smoking? Do you know what Clarise was smoking?” Mister Andillious asked. 

“It had a skunky smell. But Clarise and I were talking about her turning me down. I left to return to the group and that’s when I noticed the other three weren’t in the abandoned house anymore.” He continued. 

“Do you know what started the fire?” Andillious asked. Lasair shrugged, shaking his head. 

“It was an old garage. There were barrels of liquids in the back of the building and canisters of old car oil.” He shrugged again. 

“Were there items on the ground around the car frames?” Mister Andillious asked.

“Yes, there were a whole bunch of scrap metals and fallen roof boards.” Lasair nodded. 

“Alright, stay here for a minute. I’m going to bring Officer Crooks back in.” Andillious stood from the table and stepped outside. 

Lasair closed his eyes, hoping that this would pass by quickly. He lifted his head when Officer Crooks walked in with Andellious behind him. Crooks looked rather upset as he sat in front of Lasair. Someone else in a white coat with blue gloves followed them in.

“I’m going to ask for your statement now, Lasair. They’re going to take some scrapes from under your claws and take your clothes. A change of clothes will be supplied for you.” He continued. Lasair nodded slowly. 

Officer Crooks pulled out his notepad and looked over to Lasair.  
“Go on.” He nodded and Lasair nodded back looking over to his layer, Andillious. The man nodded gesturing for him to continue. 

“Clarise and Kelsey went on a camping trip with James, Shian and I. Shian made a path up to the abandoned building from our campsite so we could explore. I split off from the group of four that evening to explore the garage because I saw there were some car-frames in it from the path we took. I don’t know how much time passed before Clarise came down from the house to the garage. We talked and she smoked. We were talking about her turning me down. I left to return to the group and that’s when I noticed the other three weren’t in the abandoned house anymore. I heard a clatter from the garage but assume Clarise was just moving things around to get comfortable. We weren’t far from the campsite and there was no one else out here so I thought we were safe. I didn’t smell the smoke until I was halfway back to the campsite. When I saw the fire, I ran back to the garage but when I got there the garage was already engulfed in fire. I didn’t know where Clarise was so I panicked and started yelling and crying -the building collapsed in on itself and then I think Shian came back to my side?” Lasair looked right into Officer Crook’s eyes. His claws were cleaned of the dust underneath. The officer stood from his seat and walked out with the lawyer. 

“Alright, Lasair. Change into these and put your clothes in here.” The skink in white smiled and set a few plastic evidence bags on the table. Lasair nodded and began doing so. As he did so he inspected his own clothes before folding them and placing them into the bags. Dirt, fur, soot and dust. He was hoping there was no blood but from what he could see - there wasn’t any. Once he was dressed in the itchy cotton clothes, he was given the skink, took the clothes and guided him outside. Officer Crooks looked up from his desk and gestured for Lasair to come over to him. Lasair did so though mister Andillious was quick to walk over as well. 

“You’re free to go Lasair. Don’t leave your campus until we say you are allowed to. We’ll update you on what’s going on once we know more. You’ll be fine, kid. You and your friends will be fine.” Crooks nodded and waved the pair off. 

“I want to go home.” Lasair sniffed as he leaned up against the bus’s side that would drive him and his friends back to the campus. Shian sat next to him, tear streaks staining the sides of his face. 

“We can’t though.” Shian murmured softly. He looked over his shoulder, James was resting against the back of the bus’s seat. He was staring coldly out the window. 

“We shouldn’t have come out here.” He whispered. 

“Those buildings were death traps. We’re all lucky to have survived.” He continued. The trio glanced to the far back where Clarise’s friend Kelsey sat. She was still crying though the noises were soft. 

“I can’t believe this happened.” Lasair whispered to himself. He rubbed his face and looked over to Shian.

“They asked so many questions. What did they ask you?” Shian asked Lasair. Lasair huffed, his brain already tired from the earlier hours of questioning. 

“Just what happened. I answered the best I could. I didn’t see what happened though, just smelt the smoke on my way back to the campsite.” Lasair summarized what he had explained earlier. Shian nodded and the three went quiet again.

Once they were back on the campus grounds the groups walked- more of marched to their dorm rooms. Lasair pulled off the unpleasant scratchy clothes the group had been given and pulled on instead a pair of night clothes. He wasn’t pleased with what had happened and honestly just wanted to forget what had happened. He pulled himself into his bed and buried himself in his blankets. He felt a cold pit form in his stomach. He wanted to continue to cry but- had been crying for what felt like hours beforehand. 

He was downright exhausted. He crawled into his bed, pulling his blankets up over himself and curled up into the comfortable heavy blankets. He closed his eyes allowing himself to drift off in his mind. He could hear Shian sobbing softly under his own blankets. How would they explain what had happened to the rest of their classmates? Lasair tried not to dwell on it, he would deal with it when it came up. 

It didn’t take Lasair long to fall asleep. He had managed to force his feelings down into the pit of his stomach eventually just passing out into a black dreamless sleep. It wouldn’t pass so easily for Shian however, the black lab tossing and turning all night long. By morning Shian would be the first one up in their room. They had finally stopped crying however, they were in a horrible mood. Lasair rolled onto his side, his bright orange nose poking out of his blankets. Shian looked over to the pup, smiling very lightly. He’d never seen anyone’s colors so bright. 

“Wolf, wake up.” Shian whispered, shifting to a sitting position. He looked over to the window, standing and walking over to the window and pushing it open. The cool air of the outdoors flooded the room. It still smells vaguely of ash. 

“Ugh…” Lasair pulled his nose back under the blanket. He rubbed his nose- sneezing lightly.

“I don’t… I’m so- tired.” Lasair grumbled from under his blankets. Shian walked over to Lasair, flopping over onto his bed with a thwump. 

“Then comfort me.” He grumbled sadly. Lasair wriggled out from under his blankets and the lab. 

“Ah! Get off!” Lasair whined loudly, 

“Noooooo….” Shian whined back. Lasair sat upright allowing his blankets to slide off his front. 

“Shian, stop.” Lasair yawned, giving Shian a good look at his shimmery white teeth. Shian nodded to him just leaning over and resting his head against Lasair’s shoulder. Lasair sighed realizing he wouldn't be getting away from Shian’s physical affections. 

“Last night was horrible.” Shian grumbled, Lasair just nodded along for a moment. He was still waking up. He was listening to the soft sounds of the wind rustling through the trees and feel of the cool air blowing through his fur. He could smell the smoke from the house fire, the scent of charred flesh was faint but he could taste it. It made him feel sick. 

“Lasair?” Shian poked Lasair’s shoulder snapping him out of his morning thoughts. 

“Huh-?” he looked at Shian blinking against the grey morning light. It felt like it would rain that day but the sun still managed to make the silver clouds hard to look at. 

“We should get dressed.” Shian suggested. Lasair rubbed his face just sitting where he was with his head in his hands. 

“I don’t… I don’t want to go to class - I … I haven’t- I don’t even know what to think of what happened last night.” He admitted. Shian laid back on his back, arms splayed to his side. 

“I guess… But we should at least get dressed.” Shian suggested. Lasair shook his head. 

“I want to sleep; I want to stay asleep.” He grumbled. Shian huffing rolled to his side and grabbed Lasair by the shoulders pulling both of them up out of bed. Lasair yelped- scrambling to get his paws under him before sanding away from Shian. 

“What-”

“Come on, we should get some breakfast once we’re dressed.” Shian basically directed, Lasair just letting his head tilt to one side. 

“How- How are you motivated to do anything at all after what we saw last night?!” Lasair shouted. Shian winced at the raised tone just turning to face Lasair. 

“I…” He looked over Lasair’s face for a long while. Lasair’s expression was cold, void of any real expression but his eyes were wide and sad. 

“I… I Just want things to go back to normal.” Shian whispered. Lasair looked away from Shian just hugging himself. He rocked forwards and back on his heels, his mind still slow and tired from the mental stress of dealing with such a traumatic loss. 

“I know…” Lasair whispered back. He walked slowly to his drawer just grabbing himself a heavy woolen sweater with the school emblem on its sleeves to pull on. He removed his pants pulling on a pair of grey slacks instead. Shian seemed relieved, getting changed into his own school clothes as well. 

“I don’t really feel like eating.” Lasair admitted as Shian led him out of the room. Shian shrugged not really having the energy to respond as they walked through the bland blank hallways. It seemed no one had heard what had happened just yet. No one paid any mind to the pair. 

It didn’t take the pair long to run into Taylor and James. They were waiting for them in the school’s central yard. Taylor looked grim; head held low with deep circles under his eyes. James looked about the same, the Weasel just resting besides the central fountain with his head resting on the smooth stone around the base of it. 

“Hello you two.” Taylor yawned, surprising both Shian and Lasair. 

“Mmm… Hello Taylor?” Lasair yawned finding a place to sit down besides the pair. 

“Where’s Samantha?” He asked with a soft huff. James rolled onto his side looking up to the three. 

“Sammy’s not here yet. I haven’t told her what happened yet.” James whispered. Shian sat down besides Lasair. The mood of the four of them felt very much the same. They were all dead tired, sad and confused. 

“Should we even tell her what happened?” Shian asked. Lasair wasn’t sure they should. All four of them were stressed out about the sights they saw so Lasair just didn’t want Samantha to experience what the rest of them were… That or he just didn’t want to explain what he had done for the hundredth time within the past forty-eight hours. 

“I… Don’t think we should.” Taylor whispered back. They all sighed looking to one another slowly. 

“What should we tell her then?” Lasair asked. The group went quiet just thinking over what they should say. 

“What should you tell who?” A familiar voice called over to them. They all looked over to Samantha, who was walking over to the four with a tray full of coffee mugs. She sat down across from Taylor on the ground, right between Lasair and Shian. 

“I brought some caffeine!” She grinned and the rest of the group tried to pull on a happy expression. Samantha wasn’t dumb, she recognized how terrible the mood was here. 

“Um…” She looked to Shian who glanced away from her. 

“Shian, what’s going on?” She demanded, Shian sighed quietly. Where could he even start?


	12. Glow

Classes for the crew started nearly a week after the horrible event. Their experiences weren’t directly touched on by the school’s therapists but the kids were encouraged to talk with them. They were encouraged to, but were not required to talk with the therapists. The crew would avoid the subject- except for Samantha who kept trying to get more information about what had happened. 

No one had fully explained the situation to Samantha but they had given her a brief summary. That was all she would get from the four of them for over three months. By the end of the school’s last trimester Lasair had finally sat her down and explained in detail what had happened and why they had kept the terrible events from her. 

The group was sitting together, bags packed full of goods sat between their legs. They were waiting for the arrival of the train out of here. 

“So, can I get your numbers?” Shian asked, pulling their phone out. Samantha, James and Taylor pulled their phones out but Lasair had already gotten Shian’s number. He had needed to since Shian had a tendency to lock the dorm room’s door on him and it was just easier to call him than to pick the lock. 

“Yeah, let me get my phone out.” Samantha answered. James and Taylor did the same. Eventually everyone in the group managed to set up their social medias and phone contacts. Lasair was happy to have all four of them in a group chat with himself. 

“I’ve got to get going now.” Taylor sighed and gave out some side hugs to the rest of the group. 

“We’ll see you next trimester, right?” Lasair asked and Taylor shrugged. 

“Probably, unless something happens over the summer to change my parents mind or your parents choose to send you somewhere else?” Taylor suggested as he picked his bags up and began following a crowd out of the building. 

Lasair watched the crowd go. At the back of campus there was an old dirt and gravel road. It wasn’t the main way to the campus, as the train was the actual main route here but it was where many parents chose to pick up their children. Since Taylor’s family lived close by the campus, he would be picked up there.

“We should probably go to the train station.” Shian yawned, hoisting his bag over his shoulder. 

“I suppose so.” Lasair agreed while James stormed past him and Samantha.

“Ugh! I hate goodbyes!” James yelled loudly as he marched on past them. Lasair followed him through the crowd of people, dragging his luggage bag behind him as they made their way to the front of their campus. He yawned idly as the early morning’s chilly air ruffled his fur. He couldn’t tell if it was starting to turn to summer. It was still cold to him. 

“I’m heading to my platform. I’ll see you guys later.” Samantha waved them off. James was already gone; the crowd having swallowed him up. Lasair looked over to Shian who was standing right at his side. 

“So?” Lasir tilted his head at him. Shian looked up at him and shifted from foot to foot. After a brief moment of silence between the two he leapt over at Lasair pulling him into a tight hug. 

“Ah! Shian? What?” Lasair leaned back away from him as Shian hugged onto him. 

“I’m really going to miss you.” Shian whined. 

“It’s not like we won’t be staying in contact with each other.” Lasair snickered and returned the hug. Shian pulled away from him after a moment.

“I know.” Shian sighed, 

“But talking across a platform isn’t as fun or at all the same.” Shian murmured and picked his bags back up. 

“Yeah, but at least we will be able to.” He shrugged and began to walk with Shian. Shian nodded idly.

“Las, your platform’s like- a mile away. You should probably go.” Shian grumbled sadly. Lasair nodded and patted his shoulder. 

“See you later.” Lasair assured him and Shian waved to him as he began walking through the crowd of students down to his platform. Every platform was its own little section along the train track. All of them made for a selected car on the train. Lasair’s was near the front of the train and right at the main gate of the building. It didn’t take him very long to get to it. 

“Goodbye, Foamcat Academy.” Lasair grumbled and clambered up the stairs onto the platform. He looked over the little building with the security guard sitting in it and glared. It was the same fat penguin from the start of the trimester. They didn’t seem to notice him as they were still just sitting back in their chair watching something on their phone. 

“Ah! You’re back.” A familiar voice called out to him from the train car’s door. Lasair looked over to the train’s door and saw the ticket collector. The tall well-dressed weasel grinned down at him. 

“Oh, you’re still tending to this train car?” Lasair asked as he moved towards the door. 

“You’ve got an attitude on you t’day don’t you?” They snickered back and picked up the luggage for Lasair. 

“Sorry, I’m just upset.” He shrugged a bit. The weasel nodded and led him through the mostly empty train car to his booth. 

“Well, you should be happy you’re finally headed back home then.” They nodded to him as they shoved the bags under the seat. Lasair shook his head. 

“No, what’s your name… If it wasn’t for my brothers and my friend Jet I’d never want to come back home.” Lasair huffed. The ticket collector handed him the ticket stub from the very beginning of the trimester.

“My name’s Alex by the way.” The weasel snickered and began walking towards the exit of the car. Lasair nodded and relaxed his head onto his hands. 

He looked around the car of the train. It was still pretty to him, red carpet and chairs bordered with dark polished wood. He wasn’t alone in the car this time around. There were three or four other students sitting in their own booths. Each one spaced out from each other. They all seemed to be busy on their phones either watching videos or texting their friends. Lasair glanced out of the window of the car to the platform. He could see the other platforms from here and watched as the students began to file into each car. He could see that Alex wasn’t the only ticket man on this train as platforms further down were already clear of students. 

It took nearly an hour for every student to get filed onto the train and placed into their seats. By the time the last student was seated and all the train car doors were closed Lasair had fallen into a light sleep. His head rested on his crossed arms as he leaned against the booth’s table. He only woke when the train whistle blew, the massive vehicle shifting backwards then forwards as it struggled to pull the new weight added to it. He yawned lightly and sat up, leaning back into his seat. 

“This will be a long ride.” he murmured to himself. 

The day crawled on; the three brilliant suns rose into the sky as noon struck. Lasair began to regret not having breakfast. He stood from his booth, stretching his arms as he walked over to the front door of the car. He looked passed the window into the next car in hopes that Alex or the bear from his first ride would be there. 

“Whatcha up to?” A snake resting their head on their arms asked as Lasair walked back down the walkway to the other door.

“I’m looking for Alex the ticket man or the lady who serves food?” He murmured and sighed when he didn’t see anyone in either of the two cars that could help him. 

“Oh, y’know you can call them to you by pulling this silver piece here right?” They moved their hand over to the little triangular shaped item on a long silver chain. 

“Oh- I always thought that was like, an emergency stop thing.” He murmured softly as he returned to his seat. They snickered and pointed to a small glass case at the front of the train car. 

“No, that one is.” They murmured and Lasair leaned over to peer inside of the case. Within it was a bright red pulley. He sighed and relaxed back into his seat. 

“Oh, now I feel stupid.” He sighed and the snake shrugged returning to their own business. Lasair pulled the silver piece and waited for a good few minutes. The large brown bear in the pretty uniform came into their car. She smiled over to Lasair’s booth. 

“Hello kid.” She smiled as she walked over to him. 

“What can I do for you?” 

“I would like to order some lunch if that’s okay?” He asked and she nodded pulling out a menu for him. 

“Our lunch options are pretty limited but you can order items off of the dinner selections too.” She nodded and Lasair looked over the selections. He was feeling much calmer this time around, the familiarity of the area making reading much easier. After a good minute he pointed to the option he wanted.

“Chicken tenders with a side of corn and mashed potatoes please.” He smiled to her and she nodded, 

“Any sauces?” She asked as she wrote down his order on a pad of paper that looked to be verily well used. 

“Sweet and sower if you don’t have honey mustard.” Lasair nodded and looked over the drinks option. 

“Oh, and for the drink can I have water again?” He asked and she nodded finishing up the order. 

“Are any of the rest of you ready to order lunch?” She asked the rest of the kids in the car with Lasair. They looked up from their phones and shrugged before the snake waved her over to take their own order. 

Lasair hummed and stretched his arms over his head before leaning over to pull his own phone from his pocket. He might as well entertain himself while he waited for his lunch to arrive. He didn’t actually have any entertainment apps on his phone as most of them were blocked on campus and he just didn’t have that kind of data to use them, but he had so many pictures, videos and gifs sent to him saved onto his phone. 

He pulled up a video he had recorded of a movie his friends had watched with him. It was a cheesy horror flick called ‘SCREM’ about a masked killer murdering students to try and become famous. He had about six movies like this recorded on his phone. It took up a lot of storage but he didn’t really use his phone for anything else so- he might as well use that storage for this. 

He hummed contently to himself as he pulled out some earbuds and plugged them into his phone. He watched the recording, listening with a smile to his friends in the background chatter quietly to themselves about the movies. They would joke often about how campy the movie was, how cheesy the gore scenes were or how dumb the main characters were. Lasair missed them so much already. 

“Here’s your lunch.” The bear woman chimed, startling Lasair as he hadn’t noticed her approach. He laughed to himself as he set his phone down on his lap after pausing the video. 

“Thank you, can I pay for it here instead of at the end of the meal?” he asked and she nodded with a smile, 

“Of course, I’ll take your payment now.” She nodded, taking the cash from Lasair’s hands. Lasair nodded and thanked her before taking his glass of water and downing nearly half of it right there and then. The chill of the ice against his teeth was the only thing keeping him from finishing the drink all in one gulp.

“I’ll be back for your dishes once you pull the dinger again.” She assured him and walked out of the car. 

Lasair looked over the chicken strips and hummed happily. These actually seemed to be well made unlike his breakfast sausages. They were crunchy and well breaded though he could taste the fry oil that had been used. He poked at the mashed potatoes with a finger, grimacing at the taste. It was definitely made from a box. He could taste the dull woody taste of cardboard in it. The corn was a little freezer burned but otherwise was perfectly fine. He ended up mixing the corn with the mashed potatoes so he could make the taste of both of them better by cancelling out some of the worse flavors in them. 

“Finish the potatoes first Lasair…” He grumbled to himself as he pulled his phone back up onto the table and continued the video. He watched his movie whilst finishing the mashed potato and cut corn mixture. With that finished he would reward himself with the fried delectable that were the chicken fingers. The honey mustard was in a little black bowl on the side of his plate. He dipped the fingers into the deep orangey yellow sauce coting the tip in a thick layer before popping it into his mouth. The sweet slightly tangy flavor of the sauce paired perfectly with the savory flavor of the fried food. He was very happy with the crunch of the breading and even happier that the chicken within wasn’t dry or bland. A bit of chicken juice spilled out onto the breading as he pulled the bite of chicken off of the main finger. The flesh of it was a healthy solid white. 

“Yum.” He murmured idly as he glanced back to his movie. He was content with this situation, a heavy meal with good entertainment really was something Lasair enjoyed. He could do without the rumble of the train car or the occasional shift as the train turned around a corner as the motion of it made him a little bit motion sick but- he was able to ignore that pretty easily as he focused on the scene in front of him. 

He watched the villain sneak into the main character’s home whilst the secondary character walked in the home with the main character, Lindy as her boyfriend. Lindy already suspected her boyfriend was the killer so this scene was her boy toy trying to prove that he wasn’t actually the killer by having his sidekick crash their party and attack him. Lasair had finished his lunch by the time Lindy was chased through the school at the end of the film onto a stage with her group of friends. It all ended in a shootout which always made Lasair smile. It was such a goofy ending to him. 

He finished his water and set his phone to the side before pulling the silver dinger again. With a full stomach and the heat of the summer suns coming in through the window Lasair was beginning to feel extremely tired again. He stretched in his seat, just handing the dishes to the bear before leaning on the table and letting his head fall onto his crossed arms. He pressed his nose into his arms, enjoying the soft texture of the loose shirt. Within seconds he had fallen into a nice deep sleep. 

Lasair woke a few hours later to the train’s wheels shrieking under him as the train slowed down to stop. He sat up in his seat and looked over the place they were stopped at. He recognized the building and the platform and quickly gathered his things as Alex came in through the door of the car. 

“Alright everyone, gather your items, make sure you don’t leave anything behind as it won’t be kept by the campus or Elli’s train station. Come one, come on- quick on your feet let’s go let’s go.” they ushered the kids off of the train. Lasair followed everyone out of the train onto the train’s platform. He walked over to the little building and knocked on the window. The mean old badger within puffed a cloud of smoke across the table to him. It floated through the cracks under the glass as the man leaned over to look at Lasair. 

“Whatcha want, kid?” He asked and Lasair tilted his head, waving the smoke away from himself. 

“Did you happen to hear anything from my parents?” He asked and handed him his ID. The badger looked over his ID before leaning back and shouting for his wife over his shoulder. She came over, a soft smile on her face, with a small dark green folder with brass edges. 

“Ayup, your parents sent this to us about a week before the end of your school’s trimester.” He rumbled. A few of the other kids behind Lasair were busy stretching and or busy checking and rechecking their items. 

“You’ll be picked up around five pm so you better get comfortable. I’m expecting you’ll be a regular like the rest’f these kids.” He grumbled and handed the folder back to his wife. She waved to him before vanishing back into the back room. 

“Can I sit inside or?” Lasair looked over to the building’s entrance and the badger snorted, 

“Nah, go sit on the side of the building the road’s on. It’s not snowing or raining, you’ll be fine.” He grumbled and motioned for Lasair to move out of the way. The other students behind him moved over to the little building once Lasair walked off. 

“Damn, it’ll be dark by then too.” he hissed to himself as he walked around to the side of the building. There, there were a few brown plastic chairs secured to the side of the building alongside an outlet with a phone above it.


End file.
